Chapter 2: The Master
It had only been six days since her disappearance, and pretty much everyone had given up hope. Even lover boy boyfriend, but maybe it was to be expected. Everyone who claimed to be in mourning only knew Kagome from middle school, or mostly as Hojo's quiet girlfriend was aware there was no hope for the girl. When someone got lost in the forest by Avalon Hills they usually only left there in a body bag after their mangled or eaten body was discovered.
Inuyasha growled under his breath every time he saw Hojo in the hallway with another fake bitch trying to comfort him. Hojo wasn't a man, if he was he would have been in that woods not stopping until he had closure.
Giving up made sense, but Inuyasha wasn't ready yet. Kagome was alive, and he could sense it. Going to Avalon Hills though wasn't easy for him, so luckily he had other methods of getting the information he needed. He wouldn't have to go far, but could he possibly control himself if the worst he feared was true?
As usual he cut out of biology class early and found himself going towards the school infirmary. A couple of girls were going the same way as him, probably to fake sick so they could go home. Inuyasha let out a growl marching into the nurse's office and shutting the door behind him so there would be no distractions.
The nurse in charge looked up for a second before sighing and hoping that ignoring him would go away. Sango knew taking a part-time job here was a mistake. The boy only had one more year here, and already he caused a mess of problems.
When he wasn't claiming that he had a non-existent fever or stomach ache he was passively aggressively asking about her full time job, and that was situation she didn't want to be in the middle of.
Inuyasha finally got Sango's attention when he ripped her pen and appointment pad right from her hands.
"Kagome!" he snarled at the nurse, "does that name ring a bell? What do you know Sango?"
Sango already seemed childish with her brown hair in a ponytail added to it by rolling her eyes, "The student who got lost on a field trip? That is a shame."
"Don't play dumb with me bitch! If you know something spit it out, she got lost over by Avalon Hills."
"I'm aware I've seen the search team there on the way to work. I don't know anything else, so please don't come in here shouting acting as though you are intimidating."
"Sango I swear if you're lying-"
"Why would I?" she snatched her stuff back, "withholding information like that from the police would get me in trouble and fired. I'm not an idiot Inuyasha."
Inuyasha tightened his fist as he finally turned around not knowing what to think. Sango worked in his family's old estate in Avalon Hill where only his brother lived. He'd done well to not even think about his kin for a long time now, but when Sango came her as a part-time nurse his interest was peeked.
"Fine," he turned around clearly pissed about something, "but if anything is out of place you'll pay for it."
Sango was instructed to not pay any mind to the younger brother, but she was very curious. Wasn't Kagome the girl friend of some soccer player? That didn't seem like Inuyasha's type, but he was acting as though his lover had disappeared. Oh well, concerning herself with teenager drama was a waste of time. When she went back to Avalon Hills tonight she had a lot more to work about.
"Inuyasha," she put on her no-nonsense-I'm-dealing-with-children voice, "I've warned you and this is the last time. Come in here without a hall pass again I will report you to the principal. You always seem to think you are above everyone else and can do whatever you please… actually a trait you share with your brother."
He would have liked nothing more than to destroy that whole office right then and there being compared to that bastard, but now wasn't the time.
"Kagome is probably dead, but if there is the slightest chance she isn't, and you see her. She's diabetic and will probably need food or insulin."
Sango rose a curious eyebrow before nodding and dismissing the boy before jotting down some information. It got slow in the nurse's office, so she was able to get some research done, before she noticed there was a line out the door since Inuyasha kept it shut.
The nurse use to be a female cage fighter about 10 years back fighting to pay her way through medical school, and how she missed being in that physical condition. These students were rude and always looking for excuses they could use a good beating. When she thought she was almost done for the day she had to carry a way a student that came into class drunk and passed out.
"Just shoot me," she frowned to herself when she finally got into her BMW at the end of the day, a car that usually school nurses couldn't afford.
The drive to Avalon Hills was agonizing, but today there was a break in the case and perhaps her boss would be less irritable when there was one last thing for him to be curious about.
At least Avalon Hills was beautiful, in the spring and summer when the sun was setting the trees almost looked like wood with emeralds bursting from their branches. Her boss' estate itself almost looked like a small brick castle with several gardens on the outside and inside court yards. Now all it needed was a dragon surveying the land and a little moat to keep the enemies at bay.
Once she drove up the gate she remembered the castle was anything but ancient though, she needed a security card to get to the driveway, get into the building, and get upstairs to the infirmary. Her boss was clearly a trust fund baby of some sorts, because obviously he couldn't go out in work and the facility she worked in was always stocked with the latest technology and the best gear.
Sango quickly changed into something that didn't smell like public school and grabbed her notes before going into a side room meant for patients to lie down in.
"So Kagome has diabetes," Sango frowned looking at the unconsciousness girl who was in stable condition, but had been in this state ever since she was attacked.
Diabetes was something Sango could have figured out with a simple blood test and saw unbalanced sugar levels, but there was something odd about this Kagome girl.
She shouldn't be alive, when Sango first set eyes on her covered in bite marks with all the life gone from her eyes she doubted this girl had one ounce of blood in her veins. However, the girl pulled into stable condition rather quickly and without much medical assistance. During the testing, though all other tests were fine, her blood just didn't make any sense. Her white blood cells seemed to completely out number her red and testing for any diseases or viruses was hard to do.
The girl was diabetic and going without any treatment, but yet her vitals were fine.
Sango just wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. She was hired for research and development, that she used leftover and fresh samples for. Never having to deal with a live specimen she didn't even know where to begin, and not being able to understand the blood samples was a huge hindrance.
"I shouldn't have even bothered with school," Sango cried to herself today, "I'm just not cut out for this."
"I agree with that statement."
Sango had acted tough around Inuyasha, but the voice of his older brother could sometimes make her shudder.
She turned and looked at her employer, always shocked by his cold demeaning appearance. Lord Sesshoumaru often wore a lot of white, but had the darkest aura around him. His eyes were a warm gold, but yet cold and calculating. He was the type of creature to not be bothered by anything unless it could have a major effect on him.
Warm gold eyes, cold gaze always half and half with Sesshoumaru. Like right now just the way he walked and stood in the infirmary, it was all full of flawless grace. Yet, when he was outside among nature he could almost be confused with a wild animal stalking and hunting.
She was thankful it was cold Sesshoumaru right now, usually the other way around meant someone would die.
Right to the point he spoke again, "Nothing has changed?"
Even though Sango's work was considered a long house call Sesshoumaru always expected professionalism and that's what she gave him when she recovered her posture and eyed her clip board.
"Her condition is the same, blood sample gets more warped, but your brother tipped me off that she has diabetes. Type 1 or 2, it doesn't matter in this case because it doesn't do me any good when the blood sample is that messed up."
Sesshoumaru actually reacted versus the usual standing there with a blank look. What could that mean?
"I could have told you that…. Diabetic humans are disgusting. If I hadn't been nearly starved in the woods when I stumbled upon her I would have passed."
Sango was a little uneasy again once Sesshoumaru actually talked about his true nature. At least he was up front with her when she inquired about the job and he told her that he was a second generation vampire, a creature who'd never had a human life and instead was born when two vampires mated. He'd insured Sango she would be safe here, and the money was just too good to give up for him to just erase her memories and send her on her way.
It wasn't that bad, all she was really expected to do was take blood samples from him, and study blood samples from other vampires that her predecessors had taken to compare and document anything strange.
Sesshoumaru didn't really expect much, just documented information.
Sango knew that was about all she could do still being new to science as well as the world of vampires. The doctor before her, who'd finally died of old age, at least she hoped that was the truth, had unlocked all sorts of wonderful things. Vampire blood, if injected into a human it could possibly prevent all sorts of cancer and illness. Strange, that a lifeless creature possibly had the recipe in him to save human lives.
The vampires themselves benefited from the previous doctor, the biggest benefactor being Inuyasha.
Not all vampires could produce children; certain ones were carriers, which were rare since there were only about 5 per generation. Sesshoumaru's father carried the genes and produced Sesshoumaru with a female vampire, and then along the line mated with a human and gave birth to some sort of half vampire.
When Inuyasha was a baby his heart was still beating and the vampirism symptoms hadn't taken effect, using samples from him the previous doctor was actually able to cure the disease. As Sango had seen earlier that day Inuyasha was a perfectly healthy human not a single memory of ever thirsting for blood. Had the good doctor's research not been destroyed one night by a raid Sango never received full details about there could have possibly been a world where all vampires could be cured and go back to being human.
It rose a lot of questions, like if such an antidote could even work on someone born vampire like Sesshoumaru, and if so could he ever be human? How could Inuyasha continue to carry a similar appearance to his father when all those genes were destroyed? Did the DNA remember the human living self somehow?
As much as Sango disliked the path she'd chosen in life she continued to be curious about everything, and maybe Kagome was the catalyst. This diabetic girl was able to survive an attack from a very powerful vampire, so perhaps somewhere inside her laid important information.
That was why Sesshoumaru continued to keep her alive. According to him he'd drained her dry, and before he could leave he saw her moving trying to get up before passing out. With a description like that it almost sounded as though she'd died and came back to life. There was a mystery to be solved about this girl, and Sesshoumaru would take whatever means necessary to solve it.
It didn't help that Sango only found out information about vampires from bits and pieces by Sesshoumaru who didn't talk much. She swore she spent her first year here just trying to get the basic vocabulary and terms documented for her personal information.
"So Inuyasha knows this girl?" Sesshoumaru inquired looking through Sango's paperwork to make sure she was actually working.
"Yes, and when someone goes missing in Avalon Hills he automatically assumes you had something to do with it. I think this girl means a lot to him."
"Human girls can be replaced," Sesshoumaru swiftly dismissed it, "he isn't the type to report anything to the human authorities and if he dares to snoop around here there will be consequences for him."
Sesshoumaru wasn't the cookie cutter villain you saw in your Saturday morning cartoons. His threats were very real, but yet with a tone like that it wasn't pleasant, but yet not intimidating either. He could calmly announce someone's death sentence and carry it out without making it obvious that he wasn't joking.
Master Sesshoumaru was not the kind to joke, she'd never seen him make anything resembling a smile.
Clearly Inuyasha had not a trace of vampirism in him, because he was the exact opposite. Always prone to outbursts and tantrums, it raised even more questions, like if he had remained a half vampire would he be similar to his brother? Sango couldn't really compare them or find out much about the family. Sesshoumaru's parents were dead and he'd had some fallout with his younger brother since Inuyasha was banned from the family estate.
Sango really wished she had more information to work with, all she knew about vampires was what she read in novels and saw in scary movies. Much like the fictional work Sesshoumaru would die in the sunlight and had to keep his day time haunting to the dark forests, and even though he was once a young infant being born a vampire he would never age a day past the 25-year-old he appeared to be. There were no mirrors on the estate, because they had no purpose. Vampires had no reflection.
What was different from their fictional counterparts was that the government fully knew about vampires, and had taken measures to insure human safety. To stop their population from growing top scientist, that Sango could never measure up to, had injected all humans with a 'mandatory mutated hepatitis' shot. Once given the shot humans developed an immunity, that would even passed to their children, so they couldn't be transformed into vampires once bitten. Even today all infants born in a hospital were given the vaccine just in case their parents had somehow evaded treatment.
If vampires fed on a human, they were to be executed by advanced human technology, which was why no one could ever know about Kagome Higurashi. Sesshoumaru had done well controlling her urges and feeding on bears and deers, but clearly the girl got lost in the forest at the wrong time. The new reserves and hiking paths built in Avalon Hills was changing the grazing pattern of game meaning Sesshoumaru had to work harder for his fix.
"There are more dangers than me in those woods," Sesshoumaru noted as he continued to go over the paperwork, "the search team has given up and no fingers have been pointed at me, nor will they. The government isn't concerned with me."
Vampires lived in clusters for protection, and so they could help one another out incase they got the urge to hunt down humans. Instead of being the feared hunters of the night that they once were, these once malicious creatures had become an undead rehab group.
Sesshoumaru's father, being a carrier that allowed more vampires to be born, was on the government's hit list. He'd been murdered in the middle of the night about sixteen years ago, because he'd snuck into a little girl's room in attempt to drain her blood.
It was an obvious lie and set up, Sesshoumaru knew this, because his father had a lot of control and even if he had to hunt a human he'd never feed off a child. This happened around the same time his previous research team disappeared with all their research destroyed. His family had been on the radar then, but once the valuable records were gone forever and Sesshoumaru's mother lost her life to a virus (a plaque probably also manufactured by the government) no one seemed concerned with this once powerful estate.
Sango had heard that back when Sesshoumaru's mother was human her family was social royalty and housed all their farmers and valuable land right here on Avalon Hills. Clearly knowledge and respect for this land faded with the fear vampires once presented. She wondered exactly what else the government had that forced these powerful creatures to live in fear and follow human rules.
Sesshoumaru seemed like the type who would never settle with following someone's boundaries that wasn't his own, yet he never left his home and hunted deer not concerned with investigating or avenging his parent's deaths.
What he was concerned with was Kagome Higurahsi. What was it about this girl? His brother seemed concerned with her, she managed to fall into the wrong place at the wrong time, and he completely drained her and yet she came back to life.
"Don't only fat disgusting humans get diabetes?" Sesshoumaru said with disgust hating mortals never being one himself, therefore not understanding, "sounds like self destructive genocide to me."
Sango shook her head, "Not always… Kagome has the kind caused by sugar, but an ex cheer leader like her eating candy bars all day, I just don't see it. She requires insulin at least once a day to survive, especially when laying in bed like this, but I've seen no problems. It's as though her health conditions has been completely wiped clean after you bit her. Did you heal her somehow?"
Sesshoumaru wasn't happy when Sango asked him questions, she was the research team, "My blood, when infused with the correct remedies could maybe do something like that, but not the toxins in my fangs."
"Sorry, I know I'm not my predecessors, but I wasn't left any information you are all I have. There isn't even a book to cite. I can barely document what I see in your blood samples let alone work with something like this."
"Someone with such doubt perhaps shouldn't be working for me," Sesshoumaru went to the other side of the infirmary and grabbed a folder, "clearly you don't take your position seriously since you work as a school nurse for that public school bringing home the scent of those dirty children."
Sango sighed, Sesshoumaru paid her well, but her family was struggling back home and she couldn't send them money as well as make her car payments and take care of other loose ends in her life.
"There is no class on vampire research, unless I worked for the government, and if that were so, I wouldn't be here to help you."
"So much for help that you've offered," he handed her the folder, "Kikyo was an intern here for Kaede, your predecessor, Kikyo also happened to be the government's payroll and the lab was completely ravaged after she took residency here. I can either hire someone talented, that would attempt to take my life, or someone ignorant like you and getting nothing accomplished. I'm not asking you to cure vampirism like Kikyo did, but being one step ahead of what the humans know would give my race peace of mind."
Sango might loose her head tonight, she was going to dare to ask another question.
"Kikyo was the one who betrayed your family, but cured Inuyasha?"
"The government knew nothing about carriers or second generation vampires until Kikyo told them, but while gaining that information she showed a lot of talent and promise."
Sango wondered if Sesshoumaru was a bit jealous, did he want to be human? She doubted it. Though he took no direct action he was angry that humans had the upper hand and he had to change his diet.
No not at all… all second generation vampires, not that there were many left, thought of themselves as superior and the better race for they'd never known otherwise.
"That file was Kikyo's," Sesshoumaru continued, "it doesn't seem to be anything useful, but there are some samples and labels she forgot to take with her."
Sango had seen it before, but that was back when she was more concerned with figuring out what a vampire was versus gathering genetic information. When she found a few slides and prints of blood samples that weren't Sesshoumaru's she decided to look further. This would definitely help her out with her own files she was starting to create.
"This is Inuyasha's," she finally figured out when the notes gave away that the subject was an infant half vampire.
The antidote the baby was given clearly didn't work over night and was a slow process for every sample was from a different work and was a little different. In the beginning the blood sample was nothing close to human, despite him being half, but slowly after the cure was administrated red blood cells started appearing more and more until subject had a heart beat and was no longer allergic to the sun.
It was opposite.
"Sesshoumaru," Sango felt awkward calling for his attention, but this was important, "Inuyasha and Kagome have more in common then we thought, well maybe not they are opposite?"
"They are both humans nothing more cept one is perplexing me with her inability to die," he responded sounding uninterested, but was quite the opposite.
"Vampire blood," Sango started pulling out all her slides and research, "is a completely different substance entirely from human blood as I seen from your samples. Thanks to Kikyo's samples I see the missing link between the two. Inuyasha was a half breed, but his blood was the same as yours, and when given the cure the vamp substance started to grow a lot of white blood cells, it almost looks like a moldy piece of bread."
Sesshoumaru didn't even know what bread was. He just awaited for the point, though he was beginning to draw conclusions himself. It couldn't be true, and he needed Sango's medical explanation to fully take it in.
"The white blood cells seem to start fighting off the vampire genes and they turn into red blood cells. It continues to fight until it's gone, then the white blood, which were mutated by the antidote return to normal until Inuyasha is a healthy human being with normal B- blood."
"I am aware of what Kikyo has left behind. The samples is all that's included as you can see, no indication of how the antidote was made."
"This has to do with Kagome. Everyday I take her blood sample she has less and less red blood cells and her white blood cells are beginning to mutate. Today there was a small bit of substance developing, it wasn't the same of yours but looked as though it had the same consistency. It's almost like your toxins is the complete opposite of the antidote."
"When vampires bite humans they are suppose to turn into vampires, that is what you are implying, but with this girl I doubt that is possible unless her grandparents had been living under a rock when the vaccine was administered and her and her parents weren't born in a hospital. She has attended school, so even if she didn't receive the vaccine as an infant they would have gotten her when she received her other mandatory vaccines. Humans don't become vampires."
There were other factors, like the victim had to be alive when bitten and usually couldn't sleep during the transformation because of the horrible pain of toxins shutting their organs down. Kagome had been drained before her heart started to beat she slept like a baby with no help from pain killers.
"She had the vaccine in her, I found traces of it during the first sample and now it is gone."
Sango had been so caught up in worrying about Inuyasha's accusations and pleasing Inuyasha she hadn't tested Kagome's blood and looked into it until she was comparing it to Kikyo's samples. Everything made sense now.
"I think slowly but surely even though it defies all the laws, government and natural, this girl is becoming a vampire."
They didn't know that for sure, but it was a great theory. If Inuyasha's samples had been reversed they would be a perfect match for Kagome's.
Sesshoumaru walked over to where the human girl slept and actually looked at her for the first time since he attacked her. It was different seeing her with all the cuts and bruises gone. This was probably the tenth human he'd ever laid eyes on, and almost looked like Kikyo a bit.
"Sango when was the last time you checked this girl's vitals?"
"Since she doesn't need life support I don't have the machine running and I check them manually, which is usually after the I take her blood."
"I didn't ask when or how, I asked if you did?"
He was in a no nonsense mood.
"No I haven't yet."
"She is alive," he reported to her something she already knew before he continued his sentence, "but her heart is no longer beating."
(End of Chapter 2)
AN: Okay a little bit of commentary. I am the worst fanfic writer in the world okay? It has been years since this fic was updated. I don't remember the plot. So I made a new one.
Well the plot was always about vampires (which I don't make mention of in the summary lolz but hopefully by the end of chapter 1 it was obvious it was a vampire fic) but it's kind of funny cause when I wrote Chapter 1 I first started reading Twilight and I was like 'Zomg this is the best book series ever' now in 2011 I'm kind of over Twilight. I think the author is a talented writer and that universe had a lot of interesting things to offer, but it's not Harry Potter where I'll read it more than once. In Chapter 2 world, now I'm all about True Blood (haven't read the books yet). This story is a plot I've made up and will have a lot of original things about it like all my stories do, but when you're dealing with something like vampires that have been done over and over again you're going to borrow a lot of things. I've never read or seen a Dracula movie, Anne Rice bores me, so we are in Twilight True Blood territory. I don't think I had a plot about the government playing such a role in vampire's lives until I read True Blood and resurrected this story, and really there is only one thing I'm taking from Twilight (which should be obvious soon). The rest of it is all my brain.
Next chapter Kagome is going to wake up and Sesshoumaru has plans for her.
Chapter after that we get to learn about Inuyasha.
I try not to beg for reviews, but guise please I really need feedback more than I ever have before. I graduated from community college and I haven't been writing regularly so I am doubting my skills lately and I haven't watched Inuyasha in years (looks at her shelf with her DVDs but lazy) I haven't even seen the final act. Am I still keeping Sesshoumaru in character? I really need you guys to help me out and yell at me if it's bad. I have a lot of other Sess/Kag fanfics to check out to.
If you don't hate me and want to badger me to update stuff and ask questions about what you just read I have a tumblr blog, the link is on my ff profile but my url is lauretheloner and even if you don't have a tumblr yourself you can go to my blog and click the ask button. I really want to get back into fanfiction mode to stop my brain from melting from all the Jersey Shore I've been watching. So help me help you D:
Love you guise