Author's note: I'm soooooooo sorry this took so long guys, I know it's been ages and a lot of you probably aren't wanting to even read the story anymore, but I'm trying. I've been really busy lately so it took forever to get to working on this, but I did it!!! And you'll be happy to here that I already have up to most of chapter 12 written, so updates will come sooner, at least for a little bit. I will try to upload this chapter and probably the next one together and if you are lucky I'll put 11 up too, but I dunno yet, might save it to put up with 12 when it's finished. I've been writing nonstop for like 3 days, and hopefully that will continue.

ALSO, I changed the story a lot from here on out from the way it was originally, and trust me, that's a good thing. The original version kind of wasn't going anywhere, but this one seems to be doing a HELL of a lot better at that. I also took out Corinne, I still don't know if I will put her back in or not yet. I'm doing a much better job of having the Sess/Kira relationship evolve more slowly this time too. I think it will make for a better story. I'm already plotting later scenes and things, which is a good sign for the story.

In this chapter I remembered something that had been sort of neglected throughout the earlier chapters of the story, and even though it's too late to fix the other chapters on this point, I think I managed to bring it back pretty well.

Ok, so I'm done rambling, enjoy!

Chapter 9

Kira sat on her bed with a large leather-bound book in her lap. It was her father's Book of Shadows. This book is what had helped her escape her old "home" to find this place. So far she was very pleased with the results of that little experiment.

Sometime in the last week she had decided it was time to read through the book again and see if there was anything else amazing she could with it. Maybe something to help Sesshomaru out with all that paperwork, yeah, that would be awesome. The book was sort of like a magical diary. It was easily 6 inches thick, and that was astounding since all of the paper was Bible paper thin. The entire thing was hand written, and her father had explained to her when she was little that it had been written in by all the people in their family for centuries. When she was little she used to marvel over the handwriting itself. The beginning of the book was written in such a curvy script and with strange words. She realized now that it was written in the dialect of the woman who wrote it, and since it was dated at 1640 she knew it would be hard to read. She had never bothered to read those ancient parts before. Up until the time that she searched it for a spell to get away she had never read anything that wasn't written in her father's clean manuscript. She hadn't kept it for its spells or secrets; she kept it because it was her father's and because it was something to remember him by. But now she had decided that it was time to learn something about her past.

Kiba was right, she did learn fast. A lot of the things she was able to learn to do with his training that she just knew nobody else could have done. She had become incredibly flexible; she dared say she could become an acrobat with Cirque Du Soleil now. She was fast, and she had a knack for martial arts. Maybe there would be something in her family's history that explained. Maybe it was because of the whole "witches" thing her dad had mentioned when he gave her the book.

She read through the first few entries before she decided it was time to go to dinner. All she had learned so far was that her so many greats-grandmother was fourteen when she had started to write the book. She had listed a few small things about properties of herbs, and that she had a crush on a local boy. Not quite the sort of thing she was hoping to find out but interesting nonetheless.

She stored the book back in the dresser, cleaned up in the wash basin and headed for the dining hall. She found Rin sitting in her usual seat and took her place between her and Sesshomaru. She looked around and was surprised to see just how many people were there. The number of foreign lords appearing had been getting larger, but she didn't know there were this many. There were at least 25 people sitting around this table, and she was upset to learn that Kaiba of all people was there as well. Apparently he had decided it was time to quit taking dinner in his rooms and to come be social.

"Lord Sesshomaru, your home is quite beautiful." Kira was surprised to hear the English language. It had been the first time since she arrived that someone had spoken her language. She was delighted. It was a gentleman sitting across the table and about 5 seats down that had spoken. "I'm positively delighted to be here!" She had to smile at his proper English accent, definitely a British demon. She was surprised by how human he looked, if she didn't know any better, she might have thought he was human. He had that distinctive British facial hair, the one with the fluffy sideburns that blend straight into a moustache without a single hair on the chin. He wore a waistcoat and had a monocle, though why a demon would wear a monocle she couldn't figure out.

"Thank you Lord Bartholomew. You are very welcome here. I trust your room has been to your liking?" Kira was shocked to hear Sesshomaru speak in plain English. She stared at him open-eyed with jaw dropped.

"Yes, yes. Quite right, it is wonderful, thank you!" Lord Bartholomew seemed pleased.

"It must differen fom home in Engrand, with arr dees youkai runnigu flee?" Kaiba spoke with difficulty. He obviously wasn't as educated as Sesshomaru, and his English was poor. Kira couldn't help but laugh out loud, which got her a lot of stares from all around the table. Even Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at her in surprise. Kaiba blushed deep red and directed an evil stare at her. She blushed and lowered her head, eating her rice slowly and silently.

Sesshomaru smirked slightly and turned his attention back to Kaiba. "It's alright Kaiba, not everyone can speak more than their own language." He said this in English and loudly enough for the entire table to hear. They all laughed and joked.

Kaiba continued to glare at Kira with a rage that almost seemed that it could kill. Sesshomaru didn't join in the laughter; he just stared at Kiyoshi, amazed that could tell that Kaiba had screwed up at all.

"Maybe you should keep her on a leash Sesshomaru sama," Kaiba spit out the honorific like it was venom. "It's rude to let your pets eat at the table." He spoke in Japanese.

Kira turned blood red from embarrassment but managed to keep it all reigned in.

"She's an ugly little dog isn't she? Just like the human your father took to bed isn't she? I guess like father like son, apparently the Inu Taisho line has an affinity for human women. So is Inuyasha going to be here as well Sesshomaru? He is your brother after all, even if his blood is polluted, he still sprang from your father's loin."

"Yes Sesshomaru sama, is your brother going to be here? I've heard many stories about him, I would love to meet him." This time it was an African demon that greatly resembled a lion who spoke. He had black skin and a golden mane that perfectly match the gold of his eyes. He didn't speak in rudeness, and he didn't seem to understand that rude is exactly what Kaiba was going for with this.

Sesshomaru sat in silence with his eyes closed and his head bowed. But Kira knew what was happening. He was furious, and he was trying to hold it in. She could just see the snarl on his face behind all the hair. She touched his knee gently under the table where no one else could see the motion and watched as he calmed significantly. "Yes, he will come. I am sending word for him tomorrow…"

"The plan seems to be working master," a quiet and scratchy voice came from a dark corner of the room. "He's sent for him, everything is going perfectly."

"I don't care about that."

"But master! We're so close! The Western kingdom will be yours…"

"I want her…"

"What was that master? I couldn't hear…"

"I said, go ahead with the plans. Continue as ordered. I have work to do…"

"Yes master." And with that, the small demon hiding in the corner disappeared; leaving the tall demon with red hair staring out the window all alone…

Author's Note: So how was it everyone? Please review and let me know! Even if you've reviewed before, I'd love to hear ANYTHING you have to say about it! Ja ne!