His shirt was wet, his control frayed, and Kouga was utterly exhausted, but Kagome was finally asleep. It was a good thing she was so short. She fit on his couch perfectly without having to pull out the mattress. Last thing he wanted to do was wake her up and remind her of her pain, so he gently laid her out over the cushions, tucking a pillow under her head for comfort. He found a light blanket and laid it over her, then finally made his escape after turning off the light.
Not that he wanted to be away from her. Surprisingly enough, her presence was soothing — a rarity to find in vampires. No, he left because he didn't trust himself to stay. He was so angry, so infuriated, Kouga couldn't risk it. She finally found a moment's peace and he wasn't going to rob her of that for anything.
"How is she?" Ginta asked, his tone soft as Kouga pushed into the kitchen. Hakkaku was standing on the other end, concern marking both of their faces. "We didn't want to interrupt."
Kouga crossed to the fridge, pulled it open and grabbed a beer. It was way late — or early, depending how one looked at it — but with the storm of emotions churning in his chest, he needed the taste. Just a little bit of something to help ease the sharp corners tugging in his gut.
Three large gulps later and he could answer. "I'm going to kill him."
Neither one look surprised, but Ginta asked to clarify, "Inuyasha?"
"Yeah." He finished the beer and consciously tossed the bottle into the trash. He wanted to throw the thing across the room and listen to it shatter against the wall, then follow it up with one or two or seven more, but the noise might wake up Kagome. With his still-damp shirt a conscious reminder of why she needed that hard-won rest, he had to make sure that didn't happen.
Instead, he focused his anger into carefully controlled words. "Turning her without her consent? Leaving her to fend on her own? Not teaching her the basics to help her survive?" His snarl filled the small room. "He should be strung up, shot, and left in the sun."
Grabbing another beer from the fridge, he stalked out of the kitchen and headed into the living room. His skin itched, the hairs on his arm and neck prickling against his nerves. Restless energy coursed through his veins and he knew it had absolutely nothing to do with the nearing full moon. He'd feel this way even if it were a new moon, finding some way to channel the violence seeping from his pores.
That poor girl had her entire life ripped away from her and rather than help see her through it, the leech up and ran. Didn't tell her anything, didn't give her any help, just left.
Some fucking friend.
Sprawled out on the couch, Kouga sipped his new beer. Maybe taking this one slower could help calm his nerves enough to get a couple hours of sleep. He'd need the energy to track down information for Kagome and figure out where her incompetent sire ran off to. And then he'd need the energy not to kill him.
"Do you think he might have been summoned?" Ginta asked, opening his own beer and sitting in the overstuffed chair across from Kouga. Propping his feet on the coffee table between them, he took a sip. "Leaving her is a pretty serious crime, isn't it? I didn't think vamps lasted long if they didn't follow the rules."
Kouga scoffed. Some rules they were, judging by the vampire currently sleeping in his basement. Not that he knew much about the vampire society. Vampires and werewolves did not mix, not ever. Even in extreme situations, they did their best to never cross paths. Had it been any other person there in that alley, he would have kept his nose to himself and continued on his way.
There was just something about Kagome, an innocence in her scent that didn't exist with most vampires. He knew she was young, barely turned from the lingering scent of death on her, but he hadn't expected her to be days old. Days old and left alone.
Whatever laws vampires had apparently weren't strict enough if they didn't prevent her being left alone to die.
"Hakkaku," he said after another sip of beer. "Can you get a message out? We need to find Inuyasha and figure out what's going on, though I don't want him to know we have her."
Hakkaku's brows rose. "You thinking of keeping her?"
"No." The memory of pain swimming in those big, blue eyes had his gut clenching. He couldn't see that again. "Maybe. Look, I'm not about to let him take her if he's just going to abandon her like that again, but I want to know what the fuck he was thinking."
Hakkaku nodded, leaning against the back of Ginta's chair. "If he thinks we know of her, he's going to come looking."
"He better." Kouga would string the man up himself if he didn't. Kagome was his responsibility for the first year of her new life. Anything she did, Inuyasha would have to answer for and if he knew werewolves caught her wandering their territory alone just days after she was turned, he'd hurry to fix that mistake. "He knows better than to leave her like that."
"Kouga," Ginta's voice held warning. "We've never been on speaking terms before. Why do you think he'll respond this time if he thinks we just want information? He'll probably want to cover his tracks and convince everyone we're lying."
"I'm hoping he'll be looking for her. Vampire or not, she said they were best friends. That has to count for something, right?"
Ginta's face showed his doubt and Kouga bit back a curse. Vampires didn't form families the way werewolves did. Who knew what it would take for Inuyasha to do anything? Kouga didn't want that to happen for Kagome's sake. He couldn't imagine how much more she'd hurt if it came out that her friendship had been a lie.
No matter. If it came to that, Kouga would deal with it. As far as he was concerned, Inuyasha already showed them he wasn't worth a damn thing, doing what he did to an innocent human, but he couldn't dictate Kagome's feelings. All he could do was deal with the aftermath should Inuyasha prove to be a complete jackass. Until then, he'd keep his opinion to himself. She already had enough to deal with.
"Do you think she'll be better when she wakes up?"
He sighed, shoulders falling under the weight of that question. It was something he'd been dreading to consider. "No," he rasped, finishing his beer. How could she be? "It's still sinking in. She's lost her entire life and hasn't realized it yet and there's not a damn thing we can do to make that any easier for her."
This part was never easy. Even as werewolves who could learn enough to go back to a semblance of their old lives, it wasn't easy. Learning that your entire future was changed in an instant was a hard pill to swallow. They had the benefit of time, adjusting between the moon cycles and slowly coming to terms. Vampires…
Vampires didn't.
He stood, taking his empty bottle to the trash. The call of a third one danced around his head, but two was enough. Just enough to take the edge off and help the last of the adrenaline fade away into exhaustion. A third one might light up his fury or send him back down in that basement for reasons unknown. Probably in an ill-gotten attempt at shielding that poor girl from the despair she was about to face.
"If she's lucky, she'll have already lost her family." Never before had he ever wished someone to be alone in the world. No one should be, but it would be easier on her. If she had family, close family that she would have to say goodbye to— Kouga put a stop to that thought before pity, pain, and anger could take root again.
Tomorrow, he'd focus on what needed to be done. Refocus, regroup, and plan the best actions to take. For right now, he needed to sleep and put it all behind him for a few hours. It had been a long fucking night.
"Lock up on your way out, would you?" He headed toward his bedroom without a glance back. "I'll call when I wake up."
Maybe Hakkaku would have information and they could start hunting down answers then.
Getting the ball rolling on this one, though I can't guarantee the next one will come as quickly. I really need to focus a bit of time on my other stories.
Anyway, we're dabbling a little bit into Kouga's mind. What do you think? Let me know! :)