Disclaimer: I don't own anything I didn't create.

A/N: Here's the second chapter. I hope you enjoy!

It was night now, and we were all sitting at our camp around a camp fire, myself and Koto sitting closer together than we usually did because of the unexpected company. Inuyasha stood behind Kagome who was sitting on a log on the other side of the fire from us, with his arms stuffed in his sleeves and looking lofty. Shippo was sitting beside Kagome on the log, his little fox feet sticking out in front of him as he watched the fire, the shards that I had given Kagome now fused into a larger, glittering chunk of the original thing. Apparently they were only missing a few shards now. The monk, Miroku sat on the right side of the fire, gazing somewhat longingly through the flames at the demon slayer who was looking quietly at my brother and I along with Inuyasha, her little cat demon, Kiara curled up on her lap, seemingly napping.

It was pretty quiet out. Crickets were chirping, the fire was crackling, a few nocturnal animals were out and about, night-time frogs were croaking, a breeze was sighing through the trees- and that one was Miroku sighing, not the wind. I couldn't help but smile to smile to myself. That guy was hopeless. It just tickled me how cute he made it look.

Koto and I had explained how we had come by the jewel shards that we had had, as we walked back to our camp so that those who were slower could keep up. The first three had come from three centipede demons that had attacked our town, and had ended up being actually quite fun to fight. They all had the shards in their foreheads. The forth came from an over-sized rat which Koto had sat on while I had poked it for any hard spots where the shard could've been, and once I had removed it, it had shrunk considerably, so Koto had thrown it by the tail back into the forest. The 5th and 6th shards had both come from a freakish snake that had gained the power of speech and had come onto me while I was bathing, making me screech in surprise and I had chopped it in half and trapped it under a rock in the hot spring until it had drowned and boiled alive. Well, snakes are cold-blooded, and that had been the first thing I had thought of. I had seen the shards bulging out of its forehead and throat when it swelled. The 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th shards had come from a bear with lightening speed, and Koto had chopped off it's legs when I noticed the bulges on it's ankles, and I had removed them before the bear could heal itself. The village ate well that night. The 11th had simply fallen out of some merchant's wagon, and I had thought to keep it, since the merchant himself hadn't seemed to notice. The 12th had come from the witch who had turned us. I had nabbed it from around her neck before running off while Koto distracted her.

I blinked when I felt my brother lightly touch the back of my hand, and I realized that I had been staring at a patch of dirt in front of the fire blankly for a little while now. I smiled slightly to myself, and I turned to face Koto, who copied me. He smiled at me, and his eyes danced with the firelight. Time for play. I raised my right hand at the same time Koto raised his left, and we practiced syncing our motions for a little while, and then I just had to touch his ears again. He grinned and did the same as I started to stroke his soft little, snow-brown ears, as Koto did the same to mine. I blissed out, and just went limp against my brother's chest. Luckily, we were close enough that I could that. My ears were slightly smaller than Koto's, and my hair had changed to a color similar to Shippo's but lighter, with faint traces of white and brown through it. Like snow on a scorched hay field. Koto wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and stretched his leg out while shifting my weight onto his chest, sweeping my legs out from under me so I was lying on my belly with my chest and arms across his legs when he slid me down his chest to rest there, where he proceeded to rub both my ears at the same time. My eyes rolled up and I stretched my arms out as if to reach for something, and I rolled an 'r' to a low, pleasurable rumble deep in my chest, and in the side of my mind, I heard Miroku chuckle while Sango and Kagome giggled.

Then, almost inaudibly, I almost sensed rather than heard an incredible force come down on a twig, crushing it underfoot. I froze, my eyes wide with my arms outstretched, and Koto had stiffened too. As soon as I noticed, I pushed myself back onto my ankles, and looked to my left outside of camp as Koto pushed himself to a knee and a foot, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he turned to search the section of woods that I was searching. I could smell Inuyasha's alertness, and I could tell without looking that he had fallen into a defensive stance and was scanning the woods as well. The humans among us had only noticed our reactions, but nothing else, and were watching us carefully. I got to my feet, fixating on the spot where I could now hear the heavy foot beats approaching from, and I made myself relax.

"Something's coming." I said and Shippo jumped onto Kagome's shoulder and hid behind her hair while Sango grabbed her boomerang and Miroku gripped his staff more firmly. "-and it's big." I said a familiar rush filling me as I heard the foot falls increase in tempo, having obviously either scented us, or seen the smoke from our fire. I grinned and looked sideways at Koto who was standing at the ready. I smirked. "Shall we?" I practically, and my twin's barely repressed grin broke, spreading across his face in the good old familiar way. He nodded, and we leaned into a run, Inuyasha hot on our tails. I snorted. Tails. Ironic. I thought and smiled before I frowned. The thing stank, and my gaze sharpened, looking in between the trees. It was big and round, a green animal standing on four trunk-like legs with a horn coming out of it's nose, and several more protruding from the rolling skin on it's back. It smelled like it had a few jewel shards in it, and I growled before launching myself at it, sliding under it's belly and reaching up with my claws and ripping it open, and rolling onto my belly at the last moment, I snagged it's hamstrings as I slid past, narrowly missing it's butt as it sat down heavily and breathed fire my way. My eyes popped wide and I scrambled out of there, missing it by a few singed hairs. I had never encountered a fire-breather before, and admittedly, it shook me up. I got into the clear just in time to see Koto's sword break in the demon's jaws. I winced at the resulting sound and yelled.

"Use your claws Koto! They're sharp!" I yelped as the demon's green horns flew at me, and managed to dodge all of the fast-flying missiles but one, and I screamed as it thudded through my thigh and pinned me to a tree.

"AKAI!" I head my Koto shout, and my eyes watered at the pain in my leg, my vision went blurring as the wound went numb and my responses started to slow. I leaned my back against the bamboo I was pinned to as I blinked, feeling heat traveling towards me, my hearing fading out. Poison. I thought numbly, and I felt a dull force slamming into my side and carrying me off. I fought for consciousness as I peered through my blurring vision at the one carrying me and managed to see red, white, gold and dog ears. I inhaled through my nose and his scent hit me, making me blink. Inuyasha… I thought sluggishly as my vision swirled into darkness and nothingness. Why would he…?

* * *

Inuyasha had her. I had watched in fear as she was slammed into the bamboo and was going to be torched by the demon's fire, but I saw what should've been a blur as Inuyasha yanked her off of the bamboo and carried her to his friends who were approaching the battle as fast as they could at their human pace. I watched as they slowed to a halt as Inuyasha approached them with my dear little sister Akai lying limp in his arms as he lowered her to the ground. I slowly became aware that I was shaking, though out of fear or anger I wasn't sure, and I watched as Kagome kneeled by her side, and it seemed as though Inuyasha was moving as slowly as he could out of the way of my view of my sister. Then I saw Akai completely, and I went numb as the information ran through my head.

Akai. Wound. Deep. Bleeding. Pale. Losing blood. She could be dead. My vision flashed red and I felt fury rush through my veins as I bared my fangs and focused on the demon who did this to my little sister. I became aware of my growling, and roared.

* * *

All I felt was fury. All I knew was bloodlust and desire to kill. My only focus was revenge. It didn't matter how I killed it, it just mattered that I did. I felt heat radiating from my skin, my fur like an inferno, like the inside of a volcano. I felt my tail hitting trees and I felt my claws and fangs ripping into green hide, tearing and ripping even after the flesh had grown cold and still, and the thought that I had killed it didn't reach my mind until I hit bone, and that was when everything froze and some sanity returned.

I had killed it. I had gotten my revenge, and as I felt myself calming down, I felt myself growing smaller and the fur vanishing with the anger, the tail disappearing completely, and I found myself standing in a clearing steaming with freshly spilled blood and scattered with the remains of a huge carcass. I looked up from where I had been looking at the ground into the sky which was growing lighter with the dawn, and I felt an odd sort of peace settle within me. I had just met my demon, and while part of me was unhappy with it, a part of me accepted it as an unavoidable part of who I now was.

I turned to look for my family/friends/group/pack and finding them all huddled up in a tree watching me, I smiled with relief and collapsed on the spot, exhaustion taking it's toll when I saw my dear little sister awake and sitting up on her own in the tree, watching me worriedly.

* * *

Apparently demons and half-demons healed faster than humans did. That was an unexpected bonus, as if I had been a human when that poisonous horn had pierced though my leg, I would've died within seconds. As I was, I healed within an hour at least, when I was awoken by the sound of a thunderous growl and by the sound of flesh ripping and thudding to the ground a meter or so away from where I was lying, blood splashing every where.

My eyes widened as I took in the situation. A fight going on in a battle-made clearing not far to my left, Kagome kneeling on my right and staring shocked into the clearing along with Inuyasha who was gaping in surprise into the clearing by my feet, Sango and Miroku standing by my head and looking very grim, and I knew I had to do something as I jumped to my feet only to have my head swim. I groaned a little and held my head as I swayed.

"Easy wench. You've only just healed. Get your bearings first." Inuyasha actually sounded concerned as I felt his clawed hand steadying me on my shoulder. I closed my eyes and shook my head, looking up into his gold eyes, so similar to my brother's.

"We need to get everyone out of the danger area." I said, looking Inuyasha in the eye.

"Everyone here can fight." He said and blinked. "Everyone except Kagome." He corrected.

"Hey!" Kagome protested, and I turned to and looked at her seriously. She silenced herself instantly and looked at me with big eyes.

"Now is not the time for complaining. We need to either help or get out of the way." I said seriously, and I turned to looked at the large, dark dog with white and brown splashed through it's fur and furious red eyes as it fought the demon that had injured me, somehow knowing it was my brother. My eyes narrowed. "Given the state he's in, the latter is better option. Get on my back." I said, crouching and turning so that Kagome was facing my back, and she put her arms around my neck without a question as I reached for her legs. I blinked as I stood up. If it weren't for the presence of her arms folded under my chin, I wouldn't even know she was there. I looked over at Inuyasha. "I can carry Sango as well if you carry Miroku."

He looked troubled.

"Where are we going?" I looked up, and looked around and spotted an old oak, with a crèche in it's branches pretty far up and I jerked my chin towards it.

"There." Inuyasha followed where I was looking and I kneeled down again after motioning for Sango to climb on my back, which she complied with easily. Standing up, the two of them together felt like a very light single person on my back. A weight I was more familiar with. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Inuyasha and Miroku grimace at each other before I leapt straight up into the trees. In a testimony to how used the two girls were to riding like this, neither of them shrieked in surprise as I instinctively leapt from tree to tree, though I heard Miroku yelp from behind me, and I turned my head mid-jump to see that Inuyasha had tossed him over his shoulder. I couldn't help but smirk at that as I landed on the tree branch I was aiming for and let the girls climb off my back, my attention only on my brother.

A part of me wondered if I had a form like that, and another thought that my brother had more demon in him than I did. Another part of me worried for him. He was getting gouged left, right and center, but he continued fighting like he couldn't feel them, avoiding only the most fatal of blows until the demon was lying still, and even then he kept ripping.

"Koto…" I murmured. The bloodlust in the eyes of my brother's body told me that he had temporarily lost his mind, and I watched him sadly as he tossed chunks of flesh streaming blood around the clearing, tree stumps visible where his tail had knocked them over. "Koto…" I whispered, blood staining his fur, both the demon's and his own. "That's enough…" I murmured, and he hit bone and froze. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a bird chirped and he backed off, releasing the bone he had in his mouth and looking at the ground as he grew smaller, and to the size I knew him as.

His fur melted away, his tail vanished, but the wounds didn't disappear. There were open wounds crossed over his arms and chest, and when he looked up to the sky, I saw two marks on his face that hadn't been there before. A blue half-moon and a red streak across his cheek, and deep in my gut, I knew what they were. Demon marks. I could see him searching for me, and I straightened up where I had been lying against the branch, and he found me with his eyes. I looked at him worriedly, and he smiled in relief before his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed onto the ground. Fear made my blood run cold.

"KOTO!!!!"