Chapter 10

As soon as Rin hit the ground outside the bathhouse, she began shivering. The ground was frigid on her bare feet, and having wet hair and damp clothes didn't help matters. She breathed a sigh into the autumn night as she hugged her arms. There was no time to waste. She needed to reach Inuyasha. Moving around would help her warm up anyway.

Rin picked her way through the darkness, using the wall of the mansion as a guide to keep from tripping. All kinds of sounds echoed around her, bouncing off the buildings and trees like hollow shells. She had heard the sounds of battle from inside the bathhouse, but now they were louder and more eerie. Demons cried out in pain and alarm, metal clanged, and the noise of creaking branches and rustling leaves came from every direction, as if the trees themselves had joined the fray.

Because of the echoing effect, it was difficult to tell the source of the commotion. Rin was not sure if she should seek out the scene of the battle, because that's where Inuyasha was sure to be, or if she should head away from it and find shelter. The most important thing is that I stay out of sight, she decided. As long as she was not where her captors expected her to be, she had the advantage. Maybe I should hide and wait for Inuyasha to find me...

The more she thought about it, the more this seemed like the best idea. She was good at hiding in small places and staying quiet. She had had lots of practice at this before Lord Sesshomaru rescued her from wolves and took her traveling with him. She just needed to locate some neglected alcove or tiny hole in the wall.

This was no easy task with the moon as her only illumination. Rin felt around in the dark for a few moments. There was plenty of room underneath the mansion, as the entire structure was on stilts, but she hated to think of what kind of creatures might be lurking under there, especially on a demon's property.

Just then she heard a terrible screech coming from the direction she had just vacated. It sounded partly like a woman and partly like a bird of prey. "She's gone!" a voice screamed angrily. "Find the child! Now!"

Rin panicked. The nukekubi had discovered her absence! Without any other options, Rin dove under the building. She blindly scurried several paces in the dirt and then turned around to face the opening. Her heartbeat pounded loudly in her ears. She wondered if this was what a squirrel felt like when it curled up in its tree burrow, hoping that the owl would not find it. She heard countless feminine voices raise the alarm. She waited for several minutes, expecting to see the bottom of their kimonos as they walked by her hiding place. But instead all she saw was strange shadows darting by on the ground, as if something was flying by instead of running.

Rin shut her eyes and tried to slow her breathing. To keep from giving in to her fear, she tried to imagine Lord Sesshomaru. His regal face, the gentle way he looked at her, his reassuring presence. She did not succeed for long. The growling and screeching of the objects that flew by became increasingly louder. Finally a dark shape dipped down into her view. Rin's breath caught in her throat. She was looking at a floating, disembodied human head. It had a pale face and trailing black hair that dragged the ground behind it. When its eyes shifted to her she saw that they shone red. Its mouth broke into a wicked smile that revealed many pointed teeth.

The head let out a gleeful scream as it lunged under the building toward her and Rin hardly realized that she was screaming as well. She scrambled around in the dirt, trying desperately to crawl away, but the monstrosity was faster. She felt a set of knife-like teeth close around the flesh of her ankle. Her entire body jerked with the pain. With her foot securely clamped, it pulled her back out into the open. Rin dragged her fingernails in the mud, wailing all the way.

When she was fully back outside, two more bobbing heads came to drift around her like vultures. The head that had her in its mouth let go so that it could chatter at the others. "Minnnne!" it hissed. "Sssstay away!" As they bickered, Rin realized in despair that her ankle would now be too damaged to support her weight; she could not run away, even if she tried.

Just then she caught sight of a person standing some meters away and watching her. It was Akane, the nukekubi that had threatened her while in the bathhouse earlier, who seemed to be the female demons' leader. The scarf she normally wore around her neck suddenly fell away. With a gasp Rin understood why they had always worn something to cover their necks before. Akane's neck was unnaturally thin, holding up her head like dango on a stick. It was gruesome to behold, but even more repulsive was what happened next. Rin watched as the demon's head popped straight off of her body of its own accord. It jerked upward and commenced to fly off while her body sat down patiently to wait for its return. Like the other floating heads, her mouth stretched out wide, displaying her fang-like teeth. "All of you back away!" she ordered as she approached, hair billowing in her wake. "You know how Lord Mikio will punish us!"

But the nukekubi head that had dragged Rin out of hiding licked the blood on its teeth lustily. "No!" it growled. "She'sssss minnne!" It hastily took hold of Rin by gathering up a mouthful of the clothes around her middle. With an "oof" she was hoisted into the air from the back. She could only hang helplessly as the ground grew rapidly distant.

At least a dozen heads came chasing after her, all shrieking with hunger and ignoring Akane's repeated objections. One of them flashed by and bit at her right arm, tearing the skin. Another tried to grab her by the leg but missed and instead grazed her knee. Like fish in a feeding frenzy, the demons swarmed around her, sinking their teeth into her flesh in quick bursts. "Stop it!" Rin cried as tears filled her eyes. "Please!"

Her blood rained down on the earth below. The nukekubi only seemed to become more vicious, competing with each other for a taste. Finally even Akane joined the fray, possibly unable to resist the smell of blood any longer. Instead of pushing her way through the other demons, Rin caught a glimpse of her swooping around behind the victim. It was then that the back of Rin's neck received a shock of pain that rivaled the cuts given to her by Kirara. She clearly felt two rows of teeth piece straight through skin and muscle. She convulsed involuntarily and let loose a trilling scream. Her vision began to dissipate into flashing spots.

Faintly, she thought she heard someone call her name. Suddenly the nukekubi carrying her stopped moving. It seemed that the others ceased their attacks as well, but her body throbbed in so much pain already that it was difficult to be sure. A few of them growled and then sat silent for a few seconds. Then Rin very clearly heard, "Get your filthy heads away from her!"

A few of the nukekubi shrieked and fled. The others continued to jerk her around defiantly, and all was very confusing for a moment until suddenly Rin felt the demon holding her let go. She fell freely through the air, weakly flailing. In her limited range of view, she saw clawed hands appear beneath her. Her first thought was once again, Lord Sesshomaru...? Before she hit the ground, she was quickly wrapped up in some one's arms. They landed roughly, and Rin was left to hang limply in their grasp.

"Rin! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

She looked up at her rescuers face with hazy eyes. No...it's Inuyasha. She rested her head gratefully against his chest and passed into an uneasy oblivion.

As soon as Inuyasha got a good look at Rin, he knew she was in bad shape. Really bad shape. On several places along her limbs, skin hung off in flaps, and other places sported deep cone-shaped gouges. She was losing blood much to quickly for a human. Those stupid things had really torn her up.

Inuyasha had never actually held Rin in his arms before, but now that he did, he was astonished at how little she weighed, even for her young age. To him it was like holding a delicate feather. Then he remembered that is must have been a few days since she had last had a decent meal. He seriously doubted her captors had done anything to take care of her physical needs. Her face looked gaunt and pale, and her body was much colder than it should have been.

"Those damn bastards," he growled spitefully. "They'll pay for this..." His own defensiveness surprised him. He had felt this way about Kagome's safety often in the past, and on occasion Miroku and Sango as well, but only now was it starting to hit him just how much he had come to care for Rin as family.

The floating heads had scattered in surprise at Inuyasha's arrival, but he noticed that now they were regrouping overhead. One of them shrieked decisively and lunged downward toward him and Rin. The half demon welcomed the chance to release some of his anger. Holding Rin's battered form as close as he dared, he jumped up to meet the demon head in the air. With a cry of "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" the head was reduced to shreds beneath his raking claws. It gurgled in despair as it fell to pieces.

The others screamed fearfully and fled in earnest. Inuyasha dispatched two more of them before they could escape, but the others disappeared inside the mansion proper, perhaps to go reconnect with their bodies. In his rage, he briefly considered chasing them down, but was brought back to his senses when Rin groaned in his arms. He stood still and examined her. Her eyelids fluttered, but then stayed closed. She whined pitifully before falling silent again. Her body temperature continued to drop, and her blood still flowed freely in many places. When he listened, Inuyasha could hear that her her heart rate was slowing.

As quickly and carefully as he could, the half demon lowered Rin to the ground and then hastily removed the top part of his red hakama. He gingerly folded it around her body. He tried to wrap up as many of the wounds as he could in the voluminous sleeves, hoping to both stem the blood flow and warm her.

After that he paused. He was unsure what exactly to do now. He did not have Kaede's medical knowledge nor any of the materials that would be needed. Having passed no human villages on the way here, the only thing he could think of was to carry Rin back home for treatment. But that was a very long way. Inuyasha was already sleep-deprived; he would never be able to get her there quickly enough without Kirara to ride on.

He glanced back over his shoulder in the direction he had left Sesshomaru and Rikuto. As much as Inuyasha hated to admit it, his half-brother would probably be able to transport her much more swiftly. But first things first: Sesshomaru would want to know that Rin had been found alive. Inuyasha gathered her up in a careful bundle and ran back the way he had come.

***Author's Note: Short chapter this time! I was going to continue into Sesshomaru's fight scene, but then I realized that that would probably make the chapter very long, and I expect it to take a little while to figure out exactly how to write that part with all the awesomeness it deserves. Thank you for reading so far and I appreciate the comments!