Chapter Ten: Web of Connections

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.

-Fredrick Buechner

There comes a moment when you are at a loss for words. Kagome had reached that moment, how on earth was she going to get away with trying to stall and lie to Kaname, he was somehow the leaders of the vampires here and more quick witted than the rest. As she turned to face him she was fairly certain the only way she could have looked more dumbfounded and stupid is if she'd allowed her mouth to hang open. Thankfully the complete loss of words helped her in that one small respect.

"She's most certainly dead." Kaname observed even though he hadn't taken another step toward the woman that had been known to most of the school as Kurenai Maria. "Care to explain?"

He was watching her with a small measure of interest, which meant a lot given his usual expression lacked it entirely. She did her best to look as not sheepish as possible but figured she was failing quite neatly. Given the bow over a shoulder and more damningly the arrows whose shafts matched the one sticking out of the woman nearby. There were cracks in the tile where the boy had been slammed and a little blood but he was gone now.

"Guess telling him 'nope not really I'd rather go back to my dorm and sleep' wouldn't work." She thought idly. "I suck at this lying thing..."

"You don't appear to be injured, and given the claw marks on her throat there seem to be the killing blow... I'd have to say it's doubtful you did this on your own." Kaname observed all without moving from the place he'd stopped just inside the door.

"You better take good care of Zero." She thought in annoyance at the manner in which the professor had left her to the wolves. Or the alpha wolf in this case.

"Um...I...don't...er can't say." She coughed in the middle, correcting her initial plan of saying she didn't know, that would have been a super obvious lie. Though the other statement didn't leave her in the best place either.

He let a eyebrow raise at her statement, staring a moment longer before walking toward her slowly. She backed up in her nervousness til she hit a wall. She glanced at it only a second before his arms were to either side of her effectively pinning her in place. His eyes were more steeled than normal and it made her hair stand on end. The sick feeling had almost completely passed now...but she sort of wanted it back.

"While Kurenai Maria wasn't here for a long period I cannot allow hunters or priests to simply murder students under my care without repercussions." The manner in which he explained it was the same way her old principle would talk about breaking rules equaling being punished. Calm, perhaps a tad disappointed, but care for the dead woman wasn't there, it was creepy. "If you can't tell me who attacked her, then I imagine that we'll have to blame you."

"Do it then." Kagome glared at him, she didn't like fear tactic games, and was a little unsure suddenly as to why she had the urge to tell him to sit down. As if that would happen just cause she wanted him too.

Unlike the other times when she'd stepped up and he'd seemed shocked or even amused the stubborn glint in his eyes didn't change. She figured he would attack or blow things up with his vampiric powers, she failed to predict what he would do.

She was pressed tightly against the wall in an instant, it stung as teeth ripped the still fresh scar on her neck free so the blood would flow. It wasn't even until he'd licked at the blood and her heart began it's usual marathon that she realized his latest intent.

"Stop it. Get off of me." She fought with all the resistance she could muster but her arms might as well have been being held in place with steel shackles. She really needed to get to the lessons on using her powers. She could use some protection right now.

"Are you certain? I can smell the blood in the air, yours, the womans, Zero's if I'm not mistaken...no one to interrupt us." His voice was instantly different, deep and alluring. "I could savor you until the sun rose."

The words somehow only added to the thunderous race of her heart, she was starting to wonder if she kept this up if it wouldn't finally die under the pressure. The sensation had distracted her already, the promise of it's ecstacy just beneath the surface assaulted her self-control. She gritted her teeth, determined to prove she wasn't just addicted to it and kicked upward only to find that vampires weren't particularly as sensitive as normal males between the legs. After a moment of a lack of a reaction and her continued struggling she found herself instead pulled away with such abruptness she was starting to think she'd end up with whiplash. She couldn't complain though a hand was clamped over her mouth so tightly she was just glad it hadn't covered her nose as well.

He'd drug her away so quickly she couldn't see what had changed and was a little dizzy with all the quick movement. They were outside again, on the path that lead to the less used older building where the attacks had taken place. He released her mouth and she breathed more deeply, he was still holding her by one wrist but the extra freedom for even a moment was nice.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Kagome glared and after a couple failed attempts to pull her wrist free send a dirty look at his fingers holding her so easily in place. "How dare you do that again after I told you..."

She went quiet as he covered her mouth again. She could hear someone calling for Zero in the distance, then a scream. Someone had found Maria, Yuki if she was recognizing it correctly. It made her sober up a little bit, it was obviously not good that one of her arrows was still sticking in the girl and the fact that Yuki had to be drug in was also something that saddened her. The girl deserved a little less darkness in her life, though as she glanced back to Kaname who was looking at her she realized she was in fact picking up on things from him other people wouldn't.
"You love Yuki." Kagome had to say it out loud to even fathom it. Once she did she found that she'd been very neatly released from his grip. If it wasn't so shocking she'd of smirked at the change of events. "You do...I didn't realize it before...then why would you want to drink from me..."

Kagome had been weathered emotionally to deal with largely stressful situations and come out of them un-phased. This time she was fasciated at realizing this bizarre power she had to read people's emotions by touching them. As she thought back on what just happened a blush started to rise on her face.

"I believe you've guessed it by now given your adeptness with this ability of yours." Kaname said, though his voice was still attractive, it no longer held any hint of sultry-ness. "Judging by your expression yes. Though I do still love Yuki, there is nothing more important than her. You would do well to return to your dorm, I need to find her."

Kagome nodded numbly, she'd stumbled her way into doing what Sesshomaru had asked, though she figured that the intelligent vampire already knew much more than what she'd said. Thinking it best not to press her luck she headed back toward her building in a slight daze. If what he was saying and what she'd picked up emotionally was right...

He was attracted to her on a more primal level. Like a man that had been starved of flavor for a lifetime and then was offered a bowl of fruit. Kagome was the fruit, it was incredibly creepy but also sort of embarrassing that he'd held her that way and licked her neck. Still, somehow she felt lucky that she hadn't been devoured sooner, the amount of willpower behind that creature heading toward Yuki was frightening to feel through her strange connection.

As curious as she was, and while she had a slight concern for Yuki she knew Kaname would look after her fellow classmate. As it was she was exhausted. She hadn't slept well lately and that connected to blood loss and the events of the day she didn't even have time to be surprised about how quickly she was losing consciousness.

ooooo The Next Day ooooo

Kagome woke with a start, blinking a little and yellling that she was awake toward whoever was pounding so harshly on her door. Outside she could hear one of the students screaming at her. "Wake up and hurry, tests are today, if we don't do well we'll be forced to help with the dance from behind the scenes and not be able to participate."

"Yeah yeah I'll hurry." She barely managed to raise her voice to call back, her neck was still sore from the wound that Kaname had started back up the night before. Thankfully she wasn't in her uniform...the shirt she'd been wearing was stained with blood. Frowning she tugged it free and washed up with a cloth in the bathroom, she didn't have time for a full shower if she wanted to get to class on time. If she was the reason people didn't get to attend the dance her fellow classmate might try to kill her. She bandaged her neck, surprised she could do it so deftly and frowned considering she'd sported so many lately.

Not having time to dwell she tossed on her uniform and threw the brush through the tangles of her hair while she choked down a granola bar...with all the blood loss she needed some sugar and food so she wouldn't end up being anemic. It was a mad dash to the classroom and by the time she sat down she was fighting to catch her breath as well as push away the dots dancing in her vision.

"Okay everyone!" The class leader called from the bottom frantically, though not everyone had arrived yet thankfully. "No matter what, in all topics, we will get top marks!"

He slammed his hand on the desk during the yelling and pointed a finger at the room in general accusingly. An exhausted looking Yuki glanced up toward a empty seat where Zero should have been the same time as Kagome. She couldn't know what had happened to him after professor Sesshomaru took him, or all of what people were even aware of during the events last night. Yuki seemed exhausted but Kagome didn't even know how to approach apologizing if Kaname mentioned her involvement at all. Something told her it was best to be quiet, she didn't have the chance to ask if the girl was okay before the first instructor came inside to start them on the tests.

It had to be the instructor she hated running things. But for a test she supposed a ethics professor was logical enough. She'd not gotten to study as much as she would have liked the last week or so but the rest of the test she was delighted to find she remembered fairly well. Once or twice she realized Yuki was glancing up to where Zero should have been sitting and her concern didn't help Kagome's concentration. She had to hope though that the professor had been true to his word and would be helping their mutual friend.

Kagome finished before Yuki or her roommate and was required to go ahead and leave the room, she spent the free time heading back to her dorm to get the shower she'd missed and look back over the wounds on her neck.

Thankfully they were already healing up nicely, the scar Kaname hadn't reopened was almost gone and the one he'd broke open was already reknitting a little. She had to appreciate the newfound quick recovery time...but that made her consider that she couldn't have actually been sick all that time. It was just false somehow, her family either also didn't remember for some reason or they'd lied to her...

She had the sinking feeling it was probably a little of both. But it was still difficult to even believe, she'd traveled through time and tried to help kill a monster that had somehow cursed several vampires, to include the one that had killed Zero's family.

Such a strange web of connections.

She finished getting more cleaned up and left a smaller bandage over her neck, thankfully it was low enough on her collar that the collar helped mostly cover it up. She wanted to put up her hair while in the nice weather but it would bring extra attention to the bandaging so she left it down.

She heard girls outside talking about going to get a dress and remembered she should do that herself. Her mother had just sent a little more money for her and it should be enough to get something nice for the event...not that she was sure she wanted to dance but something simple shouldn't cost her too much.

It was refreshing to join a group of the other students, she didn't know them well, but the girls were nice if a little surprised she wanted to go along. They chatted like girls do and after Kagome pushed aside the fact they were crushing on vampires it was nice to gossip like a normal teenager. A lot of the girls seemed to favor Aidou or Ichijo and the couple of boys that were at the shop looking for suits seemed to favor Ruka the most. Not that she didn't get to hear the names of most of the night class often.

People had noticed her often liking Zero and another girl seemed to agree that he was cooler than the night class members, most of the class thought he was sort of scary though. Kagome discussed it as little as possible, she was still worried about him.

After a lot of searching and helping other girls with comments of yes or no as to liking various gowns she found a simple blue one in the back of one of the sale racks, it was her general size but of course she'd have to try it on. It wasn't as formal as some of the other ones people were getting but it came with a thin satin sash of the same color and black formal gloves. She had some dress shoes that were black in her room. If she picked up some navy pantyhoes then she'd have a nice enough dress to wear. It wasn't too much money so she'd still be able to save some of what her mother had sent.

She picked it up and some of the other girls were glad to see she was finally trying one on instead of just looking and helping. They were very nice about the whole thing and while it was just a little big one of the girls gave the suggestion of using the sash as a belt instead of over her shoulders and it actually looked lovely the way the girl tied it around. Apparently she was a bit of a tailor and had helped some of the other girls who already had gowns adjust.

It was fun but exhausting, they got back late and she still hadn't had the chance to see Zero. She decided it was probably best to leave it for now and if she didn't see him soon she'd ask the Chairman about where Sesshomaru could have gone. It was good to have a normal day and she did her best not to worry instead of getting some sleep now that it was available.

End Chapter

I know it's been a little while. I have had major issues lately with writer's block. That with having not much free time where I'm not doing other things has made this take a back burner for a while. I will finish it however, it just takes me a bit sometimes. I'm excited to be writing again! Feedback would be great!

-Nera

P.S. Next Chapter is the dance.

To my reviewers:

k-kit - Yeah not so much...

LuLuCrazeD - Hope you continue to like it and yeah poor poor Shizuka.

Dimension - I try but I am both busy and have a tendency to get writers block. And yes Sesshomaru is stronger than the vampires cause I pretty much agree.