Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Welcome to Blood Of The Heart's first installment. You must review this or I'll be too sad to write. Who wants to miss out on vampires, anyway??? ;-) So…here is my signature smiley for you to enjoy: ('-,-') KITTY! Sorry, I'm high on sweets right now…damn sugar…No don't! I like it too much!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or relate items. pathetic, no? Well, I do have three DVD's…What you have 'em all? I will hunt you down and take them!

Chapter 1: The Carriage Ride

January 4, 1641

Dear Diary,

I have been sitting in this carriage for hours, looking out the window at endless mountains veiled in snow. The road is narrow and icy, and the driver keeps telling us to be calm. Earlier he joked we might go over the cliff along our right side. I found that not to be funny. I look often across me at my longtime friend, Inuyasha Krischan. He is sitting regally and patiently, as he has made trips like this many times. I suppose being a property-seller of the Holy Roman Empire is most exciting, traveling all around the continent and seeing its wonders, even if both of us were born in war. There seems to be no end to the bloodshed.

My mother told me not long ago that my father had been drafted, but soon after entering battle was killed. My poor little brother; He is so unaware. My mother broke down before she could tell him. He thinks father is just taking a very long time getting back, as if he traveled as abroad as Constantinople or London.

We are passing many small dells and vales, and have made many rests at small villages along the way. Sango and Miroku had better be happy to see me after all of this. I hate sitting so still, and the scenery bores me to no end. The land is beautiful and fair, but repetitive. The last thing interesting I saw was a carriage of gypsies wandering the roads, a goat prancing on the top. I must say that that was very entertaining until the goat fell off.

Inuyasha breathes steadily. I see his breath in the chill air, and watch his brown eyes scan the country. He runs a hand through his long black hair, and then looks at me. He smiles. His smile is rugged and handsome, and right now my heart flutters. It makes me feel so good to see my friend smile. He speaks. I can sense he wants to, anyway. Oh, I hope he calls me 'Darling.' I love that, you know. I must go now, Diary, or else miss his words. You know I love the sound of his voice. I will tell you more tomorrow.

My Love for you,

Kagome Higurashi

P.S.,

I know I rarely add one of these, but I just want to mention how cold it is getting. I do hate the mountains. Why can't I go back to Munich? I don't want to complain, but you know me. I feel so out of place, a lady in the rugged mountains of Austria. If there were anywhere I'd rather be than here that is close, it would be Vienna. Why can't it be summer now, God, why? It is too cold here. "Anywhere where roses won't grow, I won't go." I pray for roses, and a pleasant trip. Good luck at whatever you do, if diaries do anything.

Kagome looked over at Inuyasha as she put her red diary down and set her quill back in her bag before closing her inkwell and placing it in as well. He smiled at her. She sat, an uncomfortable look on her face, though she blushed. Inuyasha knew it must be Hell for her to have to sit for so long. It was amusing how she fidgeted, writing incessantly in her diary, smoothing her winter dress with her gloved hands, playing with her ebony locks, looking out the window regularly with her beautiful eyes.

"Kagome darling, are you excited to see Sango and Miroku?" Kagome nodded and smiled.

"Yes Inuyasha, I am." This was the fiftieth time he asked that question; she tallied the other times. Absently she pulled out her diary and added another tally. She had nothing else to do. "I've missed them ever since they left Munich. Why did they go to Vienna? I know it is the capital, but it is so far away from us. A visit to there and the trip back to Munich will take months for us."

"Not months, dear friend. They only live in Vienna during the summer months, when it is warmer. They moved to the village of Heinrich, down in the Mur River Valley. That is why we didn't go by boat."

"I thought it was because you just think that girls and boats don't go together."

"Oh, I still think that, just like any other traditional sailor; don't you worry. But it would be longer going the other way as well. The Danube isn't very fast out here, and hardly navigable in winter."

Kagome sighed, and looked out the window facing the cliff. The sun was setting behind the carriage, so the scenery in the direction they were headed was tinted gold. Far below, the River Mur flowed, ice along its banks. The windows were frosted, and Kagome nervously wiped it off.

"Kagome, don't worry. We'll be there by nightfall." Inuyasha settled back in his seat, and closed his eyes, a peaceful expression on his face as he relaxed. Kagome sighed. She was so bored. She sat as still and as calmly as she could, for as log as she could. She barely made ten minutes when she had an irritating itch in her throat; she coughed. Inuyasha stirred as if from sleep, but his eyes were still closed, his breathing even. Absently she pulled open the window and stuck her head out. It was snowing lightly, and the sunset was gone, though some light remained. She peered down in the valley again, and then noticed a town. It was full of beautiful little houses, snow-covered streets and gardens, and at its center stood a graceful gothic cathedral with towering spires. She could hear the last daylight bells ringing even from her spot.

"That is the Church of the Weeping Mother," Inuyasha said, his eyes still closed.

"I…I thought you were sleeping," Kagome responded sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I guess the church bells woke you. I'll shut the window."

"Thank you, Kagome," Inuyasha smiled. "The cool air was refreshing, though. The bells are too, in a way." He bent over across his seat to open his window, leaned out, and looked around. He spoke to the driver. "Myoga, how close are we?"

"Not far, milord Inuyasha. The old Schloss die Nachtigall castle is right on the mountaintop just there. See it?" The driver was Myoga Penrod, councilor, secretary, and travel-companion of Inuyasha. He was a short, portly man with a long pointed nose and a funny white mustache. His eyes bulged slightly, and he was almost as bald as an apple. Kagome sometimes called him a blood-sucking leech, since he basically mooched on Inuyasha, but her friend always smirked and said Myoga was "a blood-sucking flea, Kagome. He not only mooches, but he's like a bad itch." That always made Kagome laugh. She was so bored she needed it, but the fact that she would see her childhood friends again suddenly dawned upon her, as the village in the valley grew closer. Kagome found herself giggling nervously.

She hadn't seen Sango or Miroku since they married and left Munich. That was two years ago. A lot can happen in two years. Suddenly she wondered what she would talk to her friends about. The only thing newsworthy was the war, and that only seemed to get worse. The emperor was trying to stop the war, but it was a failing effort. Victory seemed very far away.

"Inuyasha, how do you think the war is going?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha had shut his window and seemed to be dozing lightly, but he answered. "Ferdinand III is a stupid person who I'd like to 'bight my thumb at,' if you get the meaning. I would make a better Hapsburg." Kagome covered her mouth in shock. Inuyasha was free-spirited, but free-lipped like that?

"You realize that if you said that anywhere in public, you'd probably be seized and beheaded before you could say 'blue goose.'"

"Why would I say that? Oh, all right Kagome, calm down. We're in a carriage, it's snowing outside, we're on the side of a mountain topped by an abandoned castle, and thousands of feet below us is a village full of people who couldn't care less if we went over the cliff. What could happen?"

"You know I hate it when you do that."

"I know."

Suddenly Myoga's voice rang out. "Lord Inuyasha, there is the road down to the village. The other road leads up to the castle. Perhaps you should sell that property."

"Perhaps," answered Inuyasha. "But the only person who could buy it would be a king or duke. All the ones who can afford it are in Vienna, and the castle is too far away from the city for those without a home there."

The carriage turned and headed down the mountainside and foothills on a long, winding road. The lantern and sconces in the carriage wasn't lit, and the darkness outside was deepening. Inuyasha quickly lit it, as well as the four sconces. Kagome chewed her lower lip nervously. Her palms began to sweat, and she felt a sudden chill as the light outside disappeared. The carriage wheels seemed to be rattling in her ears, and her seat shook violently beneath her. Her teeth chattered loudly, partly from fear, partly from cold, partly from the seat itself. Outside, there was a whoosh, as of ominous wings.

"What's happening?" Inuyasha asked to no one in particular.

The carriage began to slow, yet it seemed to swerve sickly. Inuyasha braced himself against his seat, but not as soon as he was knocked into the sidewall. A large bruise spread across his cheek, paralleling a fresh cut. He had hit a small, lit sconce. Kagome gasped, grabbed a clean hand cloth, and pressed it over his cheek.

"Myoga, control your horses!" Inuyasha shouted.

"I-I can't!" the driver cried. "They are growing frightened! They will rip the reigns from my hands if I try to subdue them! We'll go down the hillside!"

"We can't afford that!" Inuyasha roared, looking out the window down the steep, fog-covered slopes that seemed to fall into oblivion. "Help us, God," he whispered. He didn't look afraid, just startled; he seemed very calm, if not angry. The horses could be heard neighing in fear, their hooves sending sparks along the road. Myoga's cries of commands echoed among the hills, his voice full of fear. The darkness seemed to take shape to Kagome in the form of a shadow blacker than the night, and it didn't help that Inuyasha was repeatedly crossing himself, hands sweating and shaking. His brown eyes were wide.

The carriage jostled the two passengers painfully into the ceiling and then into each other. They both ended up knocked out on the dirty carriage floor as the driver desperately pleaded with God and the horses to let them all live through this trip to the town far below.

January 5, 1641 10:00 AM

Inuyasha awoke when he felt his head throb painfully, and the minute his eyes opened he knew something was wrong. He was lying on the wall of the carriage, right over a shattered window. He quickly sat up, and felt his chest for cuts. There were none. Next he noticed that Kagome's head was lying in his lap face-up. She looked to be asleep, and no apparent injury was on her. Then he noticed that the entire carriage, interior and exterior, was covered in a thin layer of snow. The carriage was lying on its side at the bottom of a hill, apparently having fallen off the road.

Slowly Inuyasha lifted Kagome into his arms, carrying his longtime friend gently. Carefully he stood up, surprised that the carriage door was open, and he climbed out. The horses were off their reigns, though lying calmly next to the carriage's glossy black-and-gold side. The lanterns flanking the door were snapped off, probably somewhere on the long fresh trail their accident made in the snow. The wheels were broken, pieces lying on the ground half-buried.

Myoga lay some twenty feet from the carriage, seeming to have been flung off as he desperately tried to control the horses during the last moments of the accident. He was obviously alive, loud snoring indicating to his condition. Inuyasha snorted. Nothing could kill that flea-like little bloodsucker.

Inuyasha set the girl down on a blanket from one of the horses. Kagome seemed alive and well, and she slept soundly, though the air was very cold. In the distance, the village could be seen, farther south, along the River Mur. He went to wake Myoga. He shook the little man's shoulder and whispered words of torture in his ear until the snoring figure woke, as if from a nightmare. "Oh my Lord! The Accident! Is the lady all right? Is she? I don't know what happened to the horses, honest! They seemed scared out of their wits!"

"Calm yourself, Myoga! You're disgracing me."

"Is the lady alright?"

"Yes. She is sleeping soundly by the horses. They seem placid now. What do you think scared them?"

"Well… the …night." Myoga's answer was too simple. "The horses had been through many nights of driving, and never scared so bad. But the night out here…it seems oppressive and deadly. In the shadows, I swear I saw wolves leaping alongside nightmares. They were howling and biting at the horses' hooves. They seemed to come out of nowhere."

Inuyasha stared at him. "Maybe Sango and Miroku should have visited us…"

"Milord, that would be a great idea. Let's not stay out here longer than we must."

"I agree," Inuyasha said readily. "Come. We will make the rest of the trip on horseback. Gather the luggage, and put it on the sturdier horse. You will ride that one. Kagome and I will ride the other one. Leave the carriage."

The Dream

Kagome stirred. Coldness fell across her. She shivered, and then opened her eyes. But it was still black. It must be very late to be so dark. But even when I look up, or where "up" should be, I cannot see moon, stars, or sky. This isn't right. She held her hand in front of her face, but couldn't see it. Suddenly Kagome sensed coldness, chillier than the air of the Alps, yet it was a firm presence, unlike ice, but like...

"A corpse." The thought was thrust so suddenly into her mind, shocking, yet it made sense. The chill had a life to it, or lack-there-of. She sat up, and her head swam violently. She felt like she was going to throw up. Suddenly a cold, familiar voice spoke from the dark void around her.

Kikyo…

"Kikyo?" she questioned. The name wasn't hers. She looked around to locate the person who said it. "My name isn't Kikyo, whoever you are." Her voice echoed onward, and she heard her sentence flung back at her several times.

Kikyo… come back…come back to me… My Kikyo…

"Whoever you are, I am not Kikyo." Kagome was beginning to grow frightened. Around her, she could here the whispers of many people, yet they all said the same thing, different tones of the same phrase.

Wake up, Kikyo. Come back to us. We miss you. KIkyo, come back…

"I told you already: I am not Kikyo!" Kagome screamed as she clamped her hands over her ears.

Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo….

"I am not Ki-"

"Kikyo." Kagome turned around and looked up, slowly.

"Kikyo............................"

"W-what?" Kagome could see someone's outline. It was a man, with long hair.

"Mine." She saw his face.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

They returned to the wreckage of the accident, woke Kagome, and began the gathering of luggage and packing it on horses. By noon, they were done, but the cloud-filled gray sky did not tell them that. It seemed so much later to the three travelers. As they rode down the treacherous, snaking road, Kagome spoke of what she saw in her dreams.

"I saw a man," she said, "with long black hair."

"Was it I?" Inuyasha asked playfully.

"No, good friend, it wasn't. He wore his hair in a ponytail, and was cloaked in the night itself. His eyes glowed. It scared me so badly I thought I was going to die; I have no idea why, but he was so… handsome and yet revolting. He was calling to me from a castle on a hill…so close he seemed, yet so far away. But it wasn't me he was calling to…not really. Kikyo he said… He held out his hand. I reached out to touch him, and got burned. It hurt me so much."

Inuyasha mulled it over before speaking. " It was a dream, my dear. A nightmare, probably of someone you've heard of."

Kagome shook her head, bighting her lip nervously. She took off a black glove, and showed him her hand. He gasped.

"Burn marks, as if by fire!" He held her hand, kissed it, and squeezed it. It hurt Kagome briefly, but the annoying throbbing went down. "Maybe your hand got in one of the sconces or the lantern."

Kagome shook her head again, biting her lip. "No. My hands weren't anywhere near a sconce when you took me from the wreckage. You told me that yourself."

"Yes, well…maybe it happened during the fall down the hill. That would make sense…" Myoga said.

"Yes, I think that might have happened," Kagome said softly. "Perhaps I hit a sconce, and my hand remained briefly on it."

"But your burn marks are in the shape of a hand. Very rarely would tongues of fire do that," Inuyasha said, his eyes dark and serious. Maybe I shouldn't have taken her here.

"That is true… It must be from the sconces, it must be," Kagome whispered desperately. "Dreams cannot hurt you; they can't... Can they?"

"No, they cannot," Inuyasha, said softly. "I am sorry if I scared you. It most likely was fire from one of the sconces. When we get into town, we'll get it bandaged."

"A-Alright. I am so sorry about all this. Maybe I shouldn't have come…"

"No, Kagome. I am… glad you came. Really. Don't worry. We'll hire men to clear the carriage wreckage, and then enjoy our stay in Heinrich with our friends."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, my Darling friend. We will have a merry old time down here. After all, Yule is still being celebrated, if not by anyone else than by Sango and Miroku. My brother might even come down to visit briefly with his daughter."

"Really? That would be great. I don't think that I ever saw his wife…"

"Her name…it was Kagura… Kagura Lamarr… before she became Kagura Krischan."

"Was…?"

"She disappeared not long after she gave birth to Rin… No one knows what happened to her. It was like she evanesced…"

"Evanesce? I'm not familiar with the word," Myoga said.

"It means 'to disappear' or 'become as vapor,'" Kagome said.

"Oh…so she just vanished…? Just like that?"

"Yes," Inuyasha answered. "But it is rumored that she fled Munich when she heard of the fighting about to break out there and here, so came back to Heinrich to save her father and get him out of here, but in her haste forgot to tell her husband and her child. She never returned."

"Wait one minute… do you mean to tell me that she was from Heinrich?" asked Kagome.

"Yes. She was actually from a noble family that used to dwell in that old castle before the foundation began to crumble, or so I understand. That is one of the reasons why Sesshomaru is coming to visit: he wants to find Kagura and bring her home."

"Well, if I ever see her, I'll let you know." Myoga said. "What did she look like?"

"Black hair, long but usually in a bun or other style, and unusual ruby-red eyes. She was beautiful, quite regal in fact; she even had a fashion sense that most women envied. It was no wonder Sesshomaru fell in love with her…"

"He is cold, if you ask me," the old man said in his stuffy voice. "He never smiles when he speaks, and even the most special occasions and warm fires don't bring him up to us in happiness."

"Look, I know my brother is somewhat cold and cruel, but how would you be if your true love, destined to marry you, suddenly disappeared and was never seen again, leaving you with a growing child who will ask you one day 'Daddy, why don't I have a mommy like my friend does?' What would you do?" Inuyasha said in a haughty voice.

The old man shut up and bowed his head. "Forgive me, my lord. It was rude for me to question your older brother. But is he not as cold as he looks?"

"Sesshomaru's hair prematurely turned white because of worry for his wife. Those red marks on his cheeks are from clawing away at his own face in frustration and anger. The moon on his forehead is a symbol of his love for her, and he got that tattoo to prove how far he would go in his love for her, even if it were unsafe for his body. He scoured all of Europe, from Amsterdam down to Rome herself, and even Jamestown in the New World and Cairo Egypt to find her. His search took him to the Far East, to the Land of the Rising Sun. He searched through the city of Yokohama, and even went to Paris, in the heart of the Land of the French Kings, our enemies in this war. He checked this village, but couldn't find her. The castle was abandoned, so Kagura couldn't have gone there."

"So she is either dead or in the village."

"Yes."

"I will help him find her…" Kagome said boldly. "None deserve to be alone."

End of Chapter One

A/N: Review, or else. Please tell me this is at least a satisfactory beginning. I'm a desperate young author looking for fans- I mean, um…err…hmm…Wah! I love randomness! Reviews and kind criticism, please. I'll be your best friend…. holds up lots of sugar and chocolate, then eats it…if you give me more chocolate and reviews. But first, to leave you all on a lighter note not, some vampire trivia:

True or False: Vampires can move in sunlight.

If you're answering, think carefully. The truth is pretty cool!

Answer: Achoo!! What? I'm not telling you the answer. Figure it out, do your homework, and stay in school.