Chapter 2

"Come on Rin," Shippo said when he opened the door, he held his hands opened and wincing a bit Rin moved her aching body. He picked her up and she was startled when he didn't put her down but rather carried her up into the apartment complex.

"I can walk!" she defended.

"I'm looking at you right now and am honestly surprised you are even breathing, now just shut up and accept the help you fragile human," he ordered. She gaped at him but she did as she was ordered because she wasn't entirely certain she wouldn't be hit for defying him.

The kitsune brought her into an apartment and set her on the couch as he disappeared into his room. Rin hugged herself, and noticed the pain in her feet and ribs for the first time, she also heard her stomach snarl in a demand to receive food.

"Sorry, Sōten will be out here shortly," Shippo said. "She's a resident, so sleep is precious to her. Here, you're human and need to eat often, right?"

"Uh… yeah," she admitted as she took the offered power bar and hesitantly nibbled on it. Her jaw was killing her, but it didn't feel broken as she opened it and shut it.

"Good Kami he did a number on you," Shippo muttered and Rin looked at her lap.

"What is it, Shippo? And who's here?" a woman said. Rin turned her head, she winced at the motion but she didn't care as she looked at the other woman. She had ruby red eyes, fangs, black hair that was sticking up in odd directions, and her heart-shaped face was flushed from sleep. Red and brown looked at one another.

"Good Kami! What happened!?" the woman was around the couch and beside her. Rin winced when the strong clawed hand grabbed her jaw.

"I found her like that last night, Rin, this is Sōten, my girlfriend, Sōten this is Rin, a human running from an abuser," Shippo said.

"We need to get her to the hospital, she could have broken bones or internal injuries we don't know about. Good Kami, what happened to you?" Sōten whispered and Rin looked at her lap.

"My husband," she admitted as she clutched her hands tightly.

"Well, I don't care if you're married to the fucking emperor you're not going back!" Sōten snapped at her which had her looking up to the furious yōkai in shock at someone keeping her. Oh, she knew Shippo had no intentions of letting her go back, but she hadn't believed him completely because he had a girlfriend and most girlfriends wouldn't want a strange girl living with their boyfriends.

"Shippo, call Hiten tell him we need his car, she needs a hospital, and call Koga," Sōten said.

"I…I… I don't want trouble!" Rin sobbed then.

"Oh, you're not in trouble Rin, we're just, we need to talk people, and we need a car that isn't Shippo's truck," Sōten informed her.

Rin couldn't stop the tears as she sobbed. Honestly she didn't remember most of the trip to the hospital, she barely remembered Hiten who looked like a masculine version of Sōten. She didn't really remember the exam, nor did she really remember what the doctors had discussed.

What she did remember was when the Ōkami walked in and she started trembling recognizing his badge. Oh shit! She was going to be arrested, tried for murder and because her sister-in-law would not let her get away she was going to be tossed in jail with the key thrown away.

Rin bit her lip as she stared up at Koga.

"Well fuck, another one Sōten?" Koga asked.

"I agreed to help battered women move away from abusive men Koga, and you know that, you agreed to help!" Sōten snapped.

"Besides, I found her," Shippo said. "And I'm not letting her go back."

"Yeah, yeah, look I need you all out of here while I talk to her," Koga said and suddenly Rin felt very exposed as she hugged the paper gown to herself and stared at the yōkai who pulled up a stool and sat down then.

"Matsuno Koga," he said. "Yeah I'm a cop, but… I'm here to help you," he assured her.

Rin couldn't speak as she started shaking so hard.

"Look, I don't care about whatever happened, I've seen too many girls like you die and I'm honestly here to help you, escape, disappear, whatever," he said.

"I killed my husband," she whispered.

"Name?" he asked her as he pulled out a notepad. She stared at him. "Look, I need your name and his to help you out of this. And it isn't murder if he did this…" he gestured to her. "To you repeatedly."

"Taijiya, Taijiya Kohaku," she whispered.

"Alright, your name?" he asked her.

"Taijiya Rin," she whispered and felt the tears slipping freely from her eyes.

"Alright, does he have family, how about you?"

"No, I'm an orphan," she admitted with a shake of her head. "But he has two older half-sisters, he doesn't talk to one anymore, but the other, Taijiya Kikiyo, she's going to lock me away," Rin sniffled.

"That's not going to happen," Koga said.

"Why not? I killed him!" she cried and he touched her knee, she burst into tears, her life as she knew it was over and she knew it. She was a dead woman walking, and she was only twenty-three! She wanted to live, she had never wanted this mess to come up in her life.

She should have stuck to waitressing.

"Look, until I have an idea of what's going on, nobody is dead, and even if he is dead you're not going to jail. I'll be making the arrangements. Now, since you're a human we're moving you into the yōkai district for the time being, when you're healed up I'll have a place for you to go, and a friend of mine doesn't mind helping women like you out for a bit. He's a bit of an asshole, but he doesn't tolerate women getting beat on and doesn't mind helping them out.

"When you're healed up, and Sōten gives you the all clear you're going to be moved to my friend and he'll give you an identity and job," Koga said.

"Aren't the police supposed to arrest people who commit crimes?" she whimpered.

"Look, you don't have any reason to trust me, but I'm going to ask you to trust our system. We're going to get you out of this, Rin, and besides, you didn't kill anyone until I say you did."

"Now, for the next few months, because looking at those x-rays behind you you're going to be resting up for a bit, you're going to stay with Shippo and Sōten, you won't be allowed out and about and I'll be coming around like I always do to check up on you. It won't be strange for them to have me coming around, I'm a friend of Shippo's afterall. And while you are there you will be staying out of sight, and you won't be leaving. When you're healed up I'll be moving you.

"For now, stay there and stay out of sight. When I move you my friend will have a new identity for you and a job to help you on your feet and if you need to move again he'll handle the arrangements," Koga said as he handed her a card.

"For now, I'm just going to go check up on the Taijiya Kohaku," Koga said as he stood up. Rin stared at the card in her hand and she felt her bottom lip tremble as she bit it and shook.

Finally the gasping sobs consumed her as she sat on that exam table aching and crying and hugging herself as she rocked herself. No one had ever helped her, no one, and now these strangers were and she couldn't stop the weeping as she sat there sobbing.

The tears just wouldn't stop, even as a strong, slim set of arms wrapped around her and she cried into a warm chest as she tried to stop the tears but she couldn't.

She wasn't free, but she wasn't going back and the relief of that was something that had set her free.

Gasping for air she couldn't seem to stop the tears as she clung to the female holding her.

Koga walked into the house of the assault of the up and coming prosecutor Taijiya Kohaku, and the kidnapping of one Taijiya Rin. Kohaku wasn't dead, he had been stabbed in the gut before being thrown down the stairs, at least, that's what his statement said.

"Hey, Matsuno! I don't see you here too often!" Detective Hojo Akitoki looked at him.

"Hmm, oh, hey Hojo," he nodded then.

"So what's a yōkai like you doing here at my human crime?"

"Nothing, the M.O. sounded like a few of the cases I was working," he lied.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, what can you tell me about the victims?" Koga asked.

"Taijiya Kohaku, and his wife of four year, Taijiya Rin were attacked last night by unknown assalents who broke in through the back door, my guess is, is that the Taijiyas were sleeping upstairs, Kohaku heard the noise, comes out, is stabbed with a knife the assaliants grab from the kitchen before he's pitched down the stairs and left for dead.

"Rin, hears the assault, tries to escape in the guest room, but they kick in the door and drag her out. we're thinking she was taken, Kohaku has been working high profile cases lately so more than likely they are going to ransom Rin off," Akitoki said.

"Hn," he grunted.

"What is it?"

"My guys are killing everyone," Koga shrugged, it wasn't a complete lie, he was working an infuriating burglary-homicide where the perps had killed everyone in the house after dragging the wife outside and disemboweling her before her husband and children.

"The search dogs find where Rin went?" he asked.

"No, it rained here last night. Sister came by this morning to the door open and found Kohaku down on the floor, apparently, Taijiya Sango has been residing in the States these last five years and had come home to meet up with her little brother and new sister-in-law and came home to this," Hojo Akitoki explained.

Koga nodded.

"How many sisters does he have?"

"Two, half-sisters, his father has had five wives," Akitoki said.

"I see, who are his sisters?" Koga asked.

"Taijiya Kikiyo, and Taijiya Sango," Akitoki filled in and Koga nodded as he filed the information away.

"Well, good luck," Koga dismissed.

"Hey! I thought you said you were here for a similar M.O.!" the human shouted.

"I was, but my guys like displaying their kills and toying with the victim all night, this ain't them. Similar, but not them," he said the half-truth and walked away then.

Taijiya Rin was in deep shit. That was all he was certain of as he walked out of the crimescene and walked into his car. He turned on the heater as he started driving away. Pulling out the encrypted cell he dialed a number he knew by heart then.

"Hn?" was the greeting.

"Hey, listen I need a pretty huge fucking favor," he said.

"What?"

"We got another one, human, needs the works," he said.

"When?"

"When she can breathe again and not look like she's going to collapse from pain, the bastard fucked her over pretty good," Koga admitted.

"Hn, evidence?"

"She was sleeping in the guest room, it had a heavy duty lock on it, and there were furniture scrapings in the floor from her moving the dresser in front of the door," he explained. "Also, he came at her with a knife, fucker ain't dead but it's a safe bet that if he hadn't fallen down the stairs she would be dead.

"Hn, get a picture when she's healed, I'll arrange everything."

The line went dead then and Koga hid that phone again as he drove back to the Ohtsuka district and mulled it over in his head as to just what Rin had survived.