Full Summary:

Ever since she turned fifteen, wherever she was, a horde of demons would decimate her village and her family would be forced to move once more. Her only consolation was that she had family left, but who knew how long that would last with her fate. She only had one option: run away in the dark of night through the forest outside of the village and hope the white-haired demon that lurked in it wouldn't get her. Inukag. Adventure/Romance/Mystery.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and Co.

Cursed Soul

Brown eyes sent one last look at the two sleeping figures, resting unaware. Her eyes stung, but she refused to cry. This was not a time to shed tears, so she tore her eyes away from them, slipped out the door, and snuck through the shadows until she reached the edge of the forest. She would allow herself one last look back, not for the village, but for the mother and brother she was leaving behind. They would be devastated, but they would be safe and that was all that mattered to her.

Steeling her nerves, she faced the forest. The dark trees loomed above her, hiding the light from the moon. If she weren't so pressed for time, she would skirt the outside of the forest instead of going straight through it, but as things were, she had no other choice. As she set foot inside, it was as if the air around her chilled. She wasn't unaware; she knew what lived in the forest. As much as she should've been, traipsing through the forest in the dead of night with no weapon, she was not afraid of the lesser demons that called this place home. No. The real worry came from the white-haired demon with glowing golden eyes that was said to lurk in it. The one who keeps the villagers from ever setting foot in it. The one who is said to have no soul.

She fisted her hands, irritated with herself. It was no good scaring herself before she even got anywhere. That would be pointless. But it was too late. At least she wanted to pretend that the rustling and other strange noises were in her imagination rather than being real.

She had never traveled through the forest before, making her relatively clueless to the size of it. That wouldn't help her at all, especially if she was already jumping at every noise and she'd been walking but a mere few minutes in it. She didn't know whether to try to speed walk through the place or walk slowly and carefully. Get out of there fast or try to be as quiet as possible? It was a tough decision.

An eerie noise in the distance halted her movement. Was that…a…chuckle? Screw slow and quiet. She was going to race out of there. Picking up her pace, she kept from full out running just to give herself better luck in not tripping over a root and falling face first into the ground, thus making herself an easier target. If she even was in danger right now. She could've just been hearing things and freaking herself out, but she didn't know what else that could sound like besides a chuckle and a menacing one at that. She'd rather not come face to face with the thing that did it either.

Maybe she was safe. It'd been a decent amount of time and she had covered a lot of ground, yet nothing had come for her. But maybe it was giving her a false sense of security.

No. Paranoia was bad.

Was that a break in the trees? Was she almost out?

She slowed to a stop in what wasn't the edge of the forest, but instead a large clearing inside it. She would have kept going if it weren't for the enormous tree that stood out, looming over all the others. It exuded a calming aura and made her tilt her head up to stare upon it in awe.

"Impressive, isn't it?" a deep voice asked freezing her in place as an arm was placed around her and a clawed hand came to rest on her shoulder, "but surely you didn't wander away from the safety of your pathetic human village to look at it in the dark of night."

"Not quite," she managed to squeak out, curling her shoulders inward in an attempt to make herself smaller.

"But since you're here," he trailed off while forcefully tugging her forward.

"Actually, you see, I'm in a bit of a hurry," she tried to pull away and shrug off his arm, but his grip remained firm.

"Little girl, are you afraid of me?" he chuckled, "why you haven't even said a proper hello. I am the ruler of this forest after all and you are in my territory. I think it's only polite, or didn't your poor mother teach you any manners?"

He stopped and a clawed hand grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him, into the piercing golden eyes of the demon she had been warned to stay away from at all costs.

"And what's your name, little girl?" he dropped her chin but he kept his arm on her.

A smirk adorned his features, a fang hanging over his lip. His silver hair fell over his shoulder and a pair of dog-ears twitched atop his head. But she barely saw any of that. It was his eyes that held her, almost like a spell.

"Kagome," she responded quietly.

"Well Kagome, I hope you know you've been causing me a lot of trouble ever since you came to the village. I felt you arrive several days ago and you've been drawing many demons into my forest. Even now I can feel the raw power haphazardly radiating off of you," he paused, studying her before leaning down to whisper in her ear, "It's going to get you killed."

Kagome felt a shiver run along her spine. She was going to die here. Maybe that was best. This way she couldn't bring death to any other innocent people. They'd be safe now.

She felt a newfound confidence at the acceptance of her fate. She stood up straight, no longer curling into herself, and squared her shoulders.

"So why haven't you killed me yet?" she questioned, her eyes never wavering from his.

He looked confused for a brief moment before responding, "Do you have a death wish, Ka-go-me?"

He said her name almost mockingly and she had to keep herself from frowning. Instead, she quirked her lips upward in an attempt to make herself look more assured. If she was going to die, she wasn't going to die looking like a weak little girl.

"Maybe I've just known what my fate was for a while," Kagome responded lightly.

"Be that as it may, I have no use for you dead," he paused before flashing his fangs, "yet."

That threw her off. She tried to piece together different ideas of why he needed her alive, but nothing seemed to fit.

"What do you mean by that?" Kagome scrunched her eyebrows, eyes searching his face like it would give her answers.

"Now why would I tell you that?" he chuckled, "it would spoil all my fun."

He winked at her, looking like he thoroughly enjoyed her confusion – it wouldn't surprise her – before tugging her over to the massive tree. He pointed a clawed finger at mark on the tree trunk, a small hole at the center of it.

"What do you see?" he asked, serious now.

Kagome shot him a confused look before following his finger, "Uh…a scar on the tree?"

He gave her a blank look. "No kidding," he said dryly, "Now try again. Focus your senses. Use your spiritual powers to look beyond that."

"Okay delusional demon who rules over this forest, I don't know what's with you or why your crazy little mind keeps telling you that I am some sort of priestess with spiritual powers, but I'm not," Kagome, in one swift movement, twisted out and under his arm, "so maybe you should go find a real priestess and I'll just be on my way."

Her escape attempt was short lived, as expected.

"Not so fast there, wench," he gripped her wrist tightly as she fruitlessly and halfheartedly tried to pull her hand free, "I believe you are the one who is mistaken."

Sighing heavily, she turned back to him, "Do tell."

He just stared at her, his eyes sharp. Kagome was starting to get nervous when he took a step towards her.

"How easily you forget who you're dealing with. If you're life means so little to you, maybe I should bring your family into this..." Inuyasha suggested.

"No!" her yell was loud and echoed eerily through the forest.

"That's what I thought, so why don't you just be a good little human and listen to what the scary demon tells you to do?" his voice was mocking and she resisted the urge to glare.

That wouldn't help her or her family, but this demon sure knew how to get under her skin.

"So," he brought her attention back to him, "you really have no idea that you're anything other than a weak, little, human girl?"

He sounded disbelieving, drawing out each insulting adjective, but she could tell he was serious all the same.

"As far as I'm aware, I've been a ordinary human my whole life. No mystical powers here."

"Huh," he said quietly, seemingly more to himself than to her, "that's going to make it a bit harder than I expected."

She wanted to ask why, but she bit her tongue. He didn't seem the type to enjoy answering questions, especially for 'weak, little' humans.

He let out a long-suffering sigh before freezing, his ears twitching atop his head. Without warning, he was pressed up behind her, one hand wrapped firmly around her waist as he leapt up onto a high branch of the massive tree. She would have screamed in surprise if not for his other hand over her mouth, effectively cutting off her knee-jerk reaction.

"It seems like someone discovered your absence," he explained as she watched some men from the village come into the clearing, lit torches in their hands as they looked about.

"Kagome!" one of the men called out causing the golden-eyed demon to tighten his grip over her mouth.

"Don't make a sound," he warned in a low voice.

She already knew better than to do that so instead, she watched the village men. She hardly recognized any of them, but then again, she only moved into their village a week ago. Besides, she never paid attention to the people. There was no need to get attached. It only made things worse.

The men did a poor job of searching, in her opinion. They held their torches high and looked about, even called out her name a few times, but they really didn't search too hard. She could've been dead in a bush or maybe, just maybe, up in a tree with an evil demon holding her hostage and the men would never notice. She guessed they were expecting her to pop out and say, "here I am" or something to that effect so they could take her back home and get some rest. Unfortunately for them, that wasn't going to happen.

Seeing no sign of the girl, the men continued forward, separating as they went around the massive tree to search further into the forest behind it. She just watched them go by, waiting for the demon to finally remove his hand from her mouth.

"That's a good girl," he complimented as he removed his hand and used it to give her a pat on head, "Seems like the training is working."

"Says the dog," Kagome retorted, cringing after the words left her mouth.

The snap of his teeth near her ear informed her it went over as well as she expected it to.

"Dog demon," he growled, "And don't forget it."

She wisely kept her mouth shut. The silence stretched on for what was probably a moment but felt like much longer before he brought the both of them back to ground level. He promptly let go of her before stalking off in the direction she had originally been heading in, throwing a gruff "Let's go," over his shoulder.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, rooted to the spot. She knew better than to run, but she couldn't bring herself to follow after him so easily.

He turned back to look at her, a look that told her she was going to get no answers from him anytime soon, before he stopped, most likely noticing her apparent lack of movement. He turned towards her, taking one menacing step forward, but Kagome got the hint and jogged to catch up to him, a frown marring her features.

"Don't bother even trying to run. I will find you faster than your puny human brain can even comprehend," he threatened, "this is your last warning."

With that, he turned and stalked off once more. Kagome followed closely behind trying to understand how she was even still alive after all the things she said to a demon that had no qualms about killing.

But still, no matter that she was in the clutches of the feared golden-eyed demon, she couldn't help but think that she wouldn't change a thing that she did tonight because her family was finally safe. They could live in peace now, in one place, and not have to worry so much anymore. That's what is important. Her family was safe. No one else mattered. Not even her.

I'm really liking the writing style I'm using on this story. Hopefully you're enjoying it to. Let me know by pressing the review button and then entering text into the box they give you! ;D