AN: First, because I said I would, and she can't come out unscathed, I'm going to embarrass Eartha. -evil grins-

I LOVE YOU EARTHA! You rock!

She's my rock at The only person who reads everything I write and gives me supportive comments. (Not that no one else has) But she's so cute!!So, everyone wander over to her end of Fanfiction and read her AMAZING but under-reviewed fic ---------- I'm serious, it's really good, but it's one of those fics that gets hidden away.

There's a disclaimer here somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced it. You know how it goes.

Personal space...--

Kagome was terrified. No sense in pretending.

Vampires could smell fear, they fed off it, not to mention the very noticeable sounds, smells and signals her body scent out that they picked out like the predators they were.

Her heart was beating so fast she was surprised it hadn't already burst out of her chest.

"Stop your panting bitch, we're not here to hurt you, or we would have torn you apart the second you entered the door."

"Mm, yeah. Excuse my skepticism." Kagome's fingers bumped the now chilled skin of her wrist and she cursed violently, although mentally.

'All my silver's lying on the kitchen table. Fat lot of good it's going to do me there.'

A throaty chuckle.

"She's fiery. I'm still not sure this is who we're looking for. She's fucking tiny."

Kagome's head shot up and she snorted, trying not to panic when intensely blue eyes met hers, and the vampires pupils expanded suddenly, drawing her into their inky depths.

"Fuck you." That felt good. If the vampire thought she was going to fall for his mind tricks he had another thing coming. You didn't survive long around vampires if you went that easily into their mindplay.

"Watch it bitch." A snarl revealed substantial fangs.

Shit, he had already gone into feed-mode.

She rolled onto her feet fluidly, pleased that she had pushed away the shaking that had threatened her a moment ago.

"Get out of MY APARTMENT!"

Two of the men bristled at her tone and posture and growled at her. The other only folded himself into her couch and it was then that she noticed disconnectedly that he was petting her cat.

Ouch, Buyo. The betrayal.

Why was she thinking about the damn cat when she was about to be mauled?

She spread her legs so she could move faster and set her weight on the balls of her feet. She had no knives, but she was going to go down fighting.

"Enough. You're as bad as she is. We're not here for a fight darling. We're here to talk shop."

She threw a look to the figure resting in total comfort on her damn couch, eliciting purrs from her damn cat. Darling, her ass.

She kept her position.

"You talk, I'll look for something sharp."

He threw back his head and laughed suddenly, and she looked at him, really looked at him.

Damn, he was good looking.

That wasn't unusual for a vampire though, they tended to be choosy about who they let into the ranks, and then they used their blood and mind tricks to look even prettier.

And he was a vampire. Creature of the night, fed on helpless innocents, could tear you to shreds with their hands and teeth, and drive you insane with a well-directed thought if you were susceptible.

But a girl couldn't be faulted for looking.

He was just this side of tall, just missing the inch or two that would make him more than average height. And he was slender, but she could tell he had definite muscle definition.

Nice, not over-built.

He was pale, but that was part of the job description when you joined the ranks of the undead. Amber eyes cut through the dimly-lit living room, such an unusual colouring. Like diluted sunlight. His hair was incredibly long, but he suited it, and that wasn't what was the most unusual.

His hair was white touched with silver.

Silver and gold. Nice imagery.

His face was slightly boyish, stubborn to a fault, but it had an intensity set right into his features that made it really attractive.

Wild.

He was wearing jeans, nicely fitting jeans, and a simple gray short sleeved shirt.

Kagome pulled herself back with a growl.

She hadn't even caught the subtlety of his gentle tugging at her mind.

Bastard was drawing her in just enough so that she was focusing on him, only him.

She crossed her hands over her chest briefly, wishing she was in more than a tank top. She always felt naked without layers. Then she dropped her hands, knowing that if she was attacked it wasn't the best position to be in.

"Try any more of that crap and I'm going to be very unwilling to listen to your proposal."

It was always a proposal. She'd heard it before, vampires thought that if they promised not to kill her, and possibly offer her some monetary compensation, she'd stop killing them. They occasionally offered her eternal life for her oath that she would leave Oblivion and pretend they didn't exist.

Yep, she killed them because she was poor and mortal. Give her a little money, make her into a walking corpse and she'd be happy enough not to kill their kind.

Idiots.

He bent his attention back to the very fat gray cat wheezing in his lap and ran a claw gently under Buyo's chin. Buyo lapped it up.

"We have no proposition. Not in the way you're thinking, little bounty hunter. We come to give you time to prepare."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh. This. Yeah, I'll start getting ready for the day of my demise. Prepare to meet my end and all that."

Vampires could be so melodramatic.

The tall vampire tossed his head back and grinned, blue eyes glinting with amusement.

"I could like you, human."

He then, very deliberately, licked his lips.

She shuddered and felt the ice water pool at the base of her spine.

Kagome tried very hard not to blush and turned her attention to trying to think of a way out of this, preferably without dying or crippling injury.

The other vampire at his shoulder, pale even for a vampire, looked at her with undisguised hate and no little bloodlust and then cast murky gray eyes on his companion.

"Finish up with the little bitch, Koga, and we'll leave."

She was getting mighty tired of being referred to as 'bitch'.

Koga, presumably, nodded and turned his disconcerting gaze back on her.

"My mistress wishes a meeting. She has been watching you for a time, and you've caught her attention, hunter."

"She's obsessed with you." The vampire didn't pull his gaze away from his attentions with her cat, letting Buyo chomp down on his finger with a grin.

'Silver and gold. Wait. Shut up.'

"Inuyasha. Watch it pet, or I'll tear out that offensive tongue of yours."

Inuyasha shrugged gracelessly and stretched his legs without dislodging Buyo.

"She'll kill him one day for his disrespect." The other vampire seemed perpetually angry, and somewhat crazed.

He was sallow, and overly gaunt. He didn't fit the typical vampire profile, but there were always a few seedy types that slipped through the filters. He turned his attention back to Kagome, his aura flaring briefly and causing his long black hair to stir in a phantom wind.

Her body was caught in a fine shiver, her abdomen clenched at the promise of dark violence in his eyes.

"Tell your mistress.." She licked her lips and tried to winced at the way her voice cut out. "To go fuck herself."

Which, in hindsight, wasn't the smartest answer, but fear shorted out the communication between her mind and her mouth.

She wasn't brave, she was just very, very stupid.

The vampire leapt at her before she could register his even moving and she fell under his weight with a brief scream that was quickly ended as his weight crushed her chest.

He threw her arms up over her head and pinned her arms to the floor with enough strength to make her bones creak.

She gasped and blinked back tears. He brought his face right down to hers, face twisted in hate and just a little insanity.

His eyes had turned to gray fire with obsidian pupils. His fangs extended over his lips and drew blood as he bit at the air in front of face, missing her by bare slivers.

"Human bitch! You'd burn away in her presence, you worthless whore."

She flinched as he tore a fang into her cheek, and dragged it down her skin, it felt like fire against her cheek.

Panting, she tried to throw him off her by bucking her body and trying to bring her knees up. His grip, his weight on her was unshakable, though.

She was slick with a panicked sweat, her heart beating the frightened tempo of a small animal facing death at the teeth of a predator.

She looked to the other vampires, knowing that the creature on her was well past sanity, and was about to tear her to shreds.

They both stared at the fight before them intensely, Koga's face slightly touched with lust as he watched her writhe underneath his companion.

No help there.

She was going to die.

He seemed to realize the train of her thoughts and he leaned in close enough to her ear that his mouth brushed against her skin.

"You're helpless.."

And then he tugged a wrist to him, holding the other firmly crushed to the floor and ran his tongue over the delicate skin there when she didn't fight him.

Memories suddenly rushed over Kagome as she threw her head back and struggled to breathe under their painful weight.

Helpless...

Teeth tore into her wrist savagely and Kagome screamed, trying to pull herself under the wave of her past.

'No. Please.. No. I'm not--'

Fire, cold fire at her wrist, teeth slicing through veins and greedily lapping at the blood that pooled there.

Helpless...

"I'm not helpless.."

A throaty purr against her mangled forearm.

Completely helpless..

"I am NOT helpless you bastard!!"

And she reached for the pool within her that leapt to meet her, pulling as much of it as possible she let it consume her, feed on her fear and anger and take her over.

The vampire on her chest pulled back and stared at her in confusion for a moment before his bloodied mouth tightened in a faint grimace of surprise.

Kagome was past noticing, her body suddenly erupted in blue light and her eyes flashed a crystalline blue. She spasmed underneath him, once and with a scream he pulled his hands away from her wrists, staring at the faintly smoking angry pink skin on his palms. She lifted her torn right wrist and made a fist, then flicked her fingers at his chest.

The vampire managed a faint squeak and flew off her body and across the room, where he landed against the wall hard enough to break through plaster and wood. His head collapsed against his chest limply, and his skin crackling with faint blue energy.

Azure and golden eyes flicked over to the form still lying on the floor, chest rising and falling quickly, and then to the prone form half-embedded in the far wall in perfect synchronization.

Kagome blinked and cradled her bleeding arm to her chest while trying to breathe normally again.

She sat up before she was ready, and ignored the rush of nausea and motion sickness and stood carefully.

Walking cautiously over to the prone vampire, she stared at him for a long moment before she lifted her foot and brought it down on his chest with as much force as she could muster.

"I'm not helpless."

He wasn't listening, mostly because she had burned his heart to cinders in his chest.

She took a deep breath. Once, twice. Slightly better.

Turning back to the others in her living room and held one small hand palm facing up to the ceiling, the other palm out, towards them. Hopefully they wouldn't see past her careful deception.

She was pretending she could do something like that again.

"Get the hell outta my apartment."

Just wanted to clear one thing up..

Yes, Inuyasha calls Kagome 'darling.' This is ooc, yes, but if you read my note in the beginning, I warned you of complete and utter ooc-ness. Except maybe in Miroku's case. He's a perv through and through.

BUT: He isn't saying this as a term of endearment. He's saying it sarcastically, mostly to piss her off.

Thanks again Eartha, you're my new hero. .