Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me.

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Cor Aut Mors

Prologue

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She burst through the clearing, dodging stunning bullets and flying daggers. She twisted to grab a blade mid-air, and deftly handling the hilt with a smooth flick of her wrist, sent it sailing towards one of her pursuers. It lodged in his throat, blood a deep red river down his front.

Breathing hard, she skidded across the wet earth and tried not to lose her footing. The clearing progressed into a slippery slope. Trees stretched below and somewhere in the distance, she could hear rushing water. She sucked in a quick stinging breath as a silver bullet grazed her cheek. They were right behind her, so close she could almost taste their acrid scents on her tongue.

"Kagome!"

She didn't stop, only launched herself across several large boulders with one sole purpose in mind – to escape. Coming upon the copse of trees, she leapt into the air and took to the sturdy branches. She didn't miss the sudden shift of her pursuers, how the heavy footfalls behind her had suddenly quieted. They were going to trap her, converge on her from both sides. Didn't they already know they had to be more creative? Going by the book wasn't going to get them anywhere. She suppressed a snarl, seeing their moving shadows to her right and left. If anything, they were fast.

"Give up! You have nowhere else to go!"

She jumped and if she hadn't grabbed a hanging branch at the last second, she'd be plummeting to her death. Heart in her throat, she dangled precariously over the edge of a deep crevasse. She pulled herself up, sweat trickling down her brow. Below, a rushing river roared, sweeping through the terrain. Across the sizeable gap, the forest continued.

She took a minute to gather herself, to consider her very limited options. They were surrounding her, betting on her surrender because there was nowhere else to go except down.

"Kagome!"

Bullets flew through the trees. Knives hit the trunks and in the flutter of torn leaves, she made her decision. But really, what other choice was there? Eyeing the distance between here and there, she tested the buoyancy of the branches around her. It would have to do. Backtracking, she took a deep breath before shooting like an arrow through the trees, gathering momentum by pushing off the springy branches. She was a blur to the pursuers below her, almost too fast to track.

"Shit! Take her down! Now!"

When she reached the last one, she pushed off with supernatural strength, propelling herself through the air and across the divide. A bullet hit her shoulder, another tore through the flesh just below her ribs. Pain ripped across her senses as she hit the other side hard, the breath knocked out of her. Her body rolled across dirt and grass until she was finally able to right herself. Struggling to her feet, blood trailing down her arm and blossoming across the white fitted tee she wore, she glanced back at her furious trackers. They had all convened at the edge, unable to follow. She wiped the dripping red from her lips and knew this was far from over.

…

Kagome stumbled through the doorway of the only being she trusted, trying her best to keep her balance. The first few weeks after her volatile defection, she'd saved this demon's life. In return – she had never demanded anything of him, didn't want anything actually because she'd bring him nothing but trouble—he'd offered her a healing hand, a quiet companionship. He'd been annoyingly persistent and so she'd relented. Jinenji was a good, gentle demon. Kagome hoped she wouldn't get him killed one day.

She fought through the terrible pain lancing down her temporarily useless arm and leaned heavily against the wall. She needed to get these bullets out. Now.

"What the—" He dropped his pile of books when he saw her. Throwing an arm around her waist for support, he gently helped her to his worn and weathered couch, fishing out the medical kit he always kept nearby for times such as these, which if he thought about it, was occurring more often as of late.

"You need to get the bullets out."

"What happened?" he asked, already setting out his tools.

She shrugged out of her cropped leather jacket and he went to work, patiently waiting for her reply. After snipping her thin tee down the front and peeling it off, he dug into her wounds to extract the intricate metal lodged deep in her flesh. Blood seeped from her injuries, heavy and red.

"Shikon…who else could it have been?"

"It's a wonder you aren't dead yet."

She snorted, grimacing when he removed the first bullet. She shifted so he could access the injury on her left side, grinding her teeth as he tried to locate the silver capsule. Damn, it hurt like all hell. She had forgotten how painful being shot was. When he finally clamped down and took out the second one, she closed her eyes in stark relief. Face pale, covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat, Kagome slumped against the cushions, taking deep measured breaths.

Within moments, the bleeding stopped and her wounds began to heal.

"Stunning bullets?"

She offered a sardonic smile. "I'm one of the best they had, Jinenji. They can't afford to kill me."

He gathered all his bloodstained tools, mouth set in a grim line as his hulking frame headed towards the sink in his kitchen. "The next sky cruiser leaves in the morning. I suggest you take it and get as far away from Shikon as you can."

"And its destination?"

"The other side of the world."

After scrubbing and sterilizing his tools, he set them aside dry. He then went to a drawer and pulled out a leather bound notebook. Walking over to her, he placed it on her lap.

"This should get you where you need to go."

"Jin—"

He cut her off with a firm shake of his head. "I owe you my life."

"You owe me nothing."

He returned a bittersweet smile.

"I won't ever escape them, you know," she conveyed solemnly.

Jinenji nodded, knowing this to be true. Shikon was relentless when they wanted something bad enough. They would go to the depths of hell if they had to, commit the unthinkable without a second thought, taking with them those who dared to get in their way. Life mattered little to them.

"Just…don't die."

"Much easier said than done I'm afraid," Kagome quipped.

He rolled his eyes and pulled her into a tight hug. "You're nothing like them, Kagome. You're different and beautiful and you actually have a heart."

Kagome let a watery laugh escape and buried her tears in the folds of his shirt.

"And if you run into Shikon, or any other hunters and trackers out for your head, do what you do best. Kill them."

…

…to be continued…

…

-demimonde