Disclaimer : I do not own InuYasha. I wish I did *drool* : ) InuYasha and all character (except the bandits) belong to Rumiko Takahashi, who is a living goddess for creating such wonderful characters and letting us use them for our own twisted ideas



Authors' Notes :

1- Oh my, so many reviews! I'm so excited, and I want to thank you all so much. You like me, you really like me!

2 - We're starting to get into a bit more of InuYasha's developing feelings. I'm hoping that you all will ride with it and think that I did it in a convincing manner from what you know of the manga/ anime. Please, read, review, tell me what you think : ) I guess I can even deal with flames, although I much prefer not to.



Last Time:



Kagome swam back to consciousness slowly, her arms screaming in pain, her face throbbing. 'What . . . where am I?' she wondered hazily. She shivered as a gust of cold air moved over her and tried to cover herself, only to find her arms tied above her head. The cold served to bring memory back into focus, and with it came the terror and shame. "InuYasha!" she whispered brokenly. "Oh gods, it's all my fault!" Tears ran unheeded down her face as she saw again the dream superimposed over her last glimpse of him.

"Ah, you are awake. Good. It's so much better when they scream." She watched in terror as the bandit stepped into the cave through the blanket covering the entrance. Her eyes locked onto the knife in his hand, still covered in InuYasha's blood. "Your young lover won't be coming to save you, if that's what you are hoping. By now, he'll be lying dead in a pool of his own blood." She moaned in denial, shaking her head furiously, her eyes shut tight.

She froze as she felt the cold metal of the knife against her cheek. She shivered as it slid down her skin, leaving a trail of blood to her blouse. The sudden rip of cloth sent her into motion, struggling futilely as she felt his hand at her skirt. 'No, please . . .' her mind screamed in denial, 'No . . . oh no . . . not this . . . not him . . . oh god . . . INUYASHA!'



Chapter 2 - Darkness Kissed (Part 2)



InuYasha's head snapped up from regarding the ground as he sensed Kagome's voice call out to him. Leaning heavily on his sword, bleeding from his back and other minor wounds, he followed the trail the thief band had left from their camp. Somehow, he could sense Kagome's terror and panic.

"Kagome!" he breathed, his voice whispering like a prayer through the silent forest. 'Gods, I was such a fool for not realizing it before!' he berated himself, struggling to force his weakened body to move faster. 'I have to get to her . . . before he . . .' he gasped as pain shot through his back and he stumbled into a nearby tree, nearly collapsing. 'NO!' he thought desperately, 'If I go down now, I won't be able to get back up!'

Gripping Tetsusiaga tighter, and hoping morning wasn't as far off as he was afraid it was, he got back on the trail, trying not to stumble over rocks and tree limbs. His vision blurred disconcertingly, and his legs threatened to give out on him with every step.

"Please . . ." he whispered, "Whatever Gods are out there that might listen to a damned half-breed dog demon . . . don't let this happen to her! Let me get there in time!" His mind kept picturing her, tormenting him with images of their time together and of her lying broken like a child's play thing, her spirit and body shattered. He was unaware of the tears flowing silently down his face as he stumbled through the silence. "Not Kagome . . ." he whispered. "Please, not my Kagome!"

His mind whispered back. 'Since when is she YOUR Kagome, hanyou? All you've ever done is berate and belittle her, and compare her to Kikyo. Do you even realize how many times you've hurt her?'

"Shut up!" he snarled to that annoying voice that was his conscience, "I didn't know then . . . I was afraid . . ."

'Of what?' his mind snarled back. 'Being emotional? Being weak? Being human? Or were you just too afraid to let go of your past and have a future?'

"I don't have time for self inspection right now, so shut up!" he grumbled at his conscience. Abruptly, he found himself standing in a clearing. Signs of an encampment were everywhere, but there was no sign of Kagome or her captor in the open. Firelight flickered from a cave to his left, muffled sounds of struggle attracting his attention. "Kagome!" he whispered fiercely. "Hang on, I'm here!"



------------- * -------------- * --------------- * ----------------



Kagome struggled to get her wrists free of the rope binding them as the bandit stepped back to remove his shirt. Her skin throbbed from his 'love bites' and small trickles of blood issued from cuts her skin had suffered when he had cut her blouse and skirt open. Her bra and panties remained the only cloth left between his eyes and her skin. She could feel blood running down her arms from her lacerated wrists, but she was beyond caring.

"With that body, you'll fetch us a good price . . ." he sneered. "However, I always fully test my good's before selling them, so . . ." Kagome closed her eyes and struggled harder to free herself as he advanced upon her.

"Oh InuYasha . . ." she whispered in despair, tears falling freely from her eyes, "I wanted you to be the one . . ."

There was a grunt and a sudden thud. Kagome opened her eyes fearfully to see her captor picking himself up off the floor, and a very battered InuYasha standing with his back to her, in between them. Kagome nearly feinted from the fierce wave of joy and relief that swept through her. "You're alive?!" she whispered, hardly daring to believe it.

"Of course I'm alive." he replied over his shoulder. "Did you honestly believe some scruffy ragtag band of humans could kill me?" Underneath his cavalier attitude, his rage seethed, tempered by the fact that Kagome was okay. When he had slid quietly around the blanket, his heart had just about stopped at the sight of her, bound with her arms above her head, nearly unclothed and bearing visible marks of abuse. The rage in him threatened to break loose, until he heard the bandits words and knew that she hadn't been defiled yet. Moving faster then he would have believed possible in his current condition, he'd grabbed the man from behind, flinging him into a wall with all his strength and moving to interpose himself between Kagome and the human filth. 'This needs to be over fast . . . I have to get her out of here before I collapse.'

"You should be dead, brat. Now you're nothing but a nuisance," the man sneered, drawing the bloody knife from his belt.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises," InuYasha growled back. Inside, however, he wasn't nearly so confident. With Kagome at his back, he already felt better, but he still couldn't unsheathe the Tetsusiaga against the man. He was barely holding on to consciousness, and his body felt sluggish and unresponsive. Holding the sheathed sword before him like a staff, he stood firm as the bandit advanced upon him.

Kagome watched as InuYasha and the bandit went at each other in a flurry of movement, exchanging blows faster then she could make out. Breaking her eyes away from the fight, she worked fiercely at her arms. InuYasha was badly wounded - judging by the amount of blood soaked into the back on his fire-rat yukata alone, she was surprised he was still on his feet, much less moving and fighting as he was. She glanced at the fight and gasped as InuYasha stumbled, regaining his balance barely in time to block a slash at his face. She redoubled her efforts, pulling and yanking at her bound wrists harder. She could feel the ropes loosening their hold as they became slicked with her blood. 'I've almost got it!' she encouraged herself silently.

'I have . . . to protect . . . Kagome!' InuYasha chanted to himself, using the litany in his head to help block the pain of his wounds. He knew he was losing, though. His eyesight was blurring, his legs were barely responding to him, and Tetsusiaga felt heavier by the moment. Seconds later, his legs finally gave out on him. He crashed to his knees, the sword falling from his hands and clattering across the uneven floor.

Slowly raising his head, he watched as the bandit stood over him, a smug grin on his face, preparing to strike. 'Oh gods . . . Kagome . . . I'm sorry . . . forgive me.' he thought, despair wrapping it's icy fingers around his heart. He bowed his head, closing his eyes against the blow he knew was coming. 'I never got the chance to tell you . . .' He knew this was the end. The end of the quest, the end of Kagome . . . the end of his whole miserable half-breed existence. In a way, he was glad. He'd never know how Kagome felt about him, never know what she'd meant about wanting him to be 'the one' .

Moments ticked by with no strike, and then there was the sickening thud of a body hitting the stone floor. 'Funny . . . I didn't feel a thing . . .' he thought, his mind trying to work the issue through a dimming haze. 'Wait a minute! That wasn't me!' His eyes popped open as he slowly raised his head.

The bandit lay prone in a spreading pool of blood nearby, the unsheathed and untransformed Tetsusiaga protruding through his chest, it's hilt buried in the man's back. Kagome stood not far from him, blood dripping slowly from her torn wrists, one of which still had the rope that had bound her dangling from it. She stared down at her hands, her face a study of revulsion, relief, and pride. InuYasha blinked, trying to make sense of the scene before him.

"Ka . . . Kagome?" he whispered, stunned. 'She . . . killed him. But . . . Kagome never killed anyone . . .' Kagome stared at him for a long minute, then looked back at the cooling body at her feet. Suddenly, she burst into motion, rushing over to him and falling to her knees in front of him.

"Oh God . . . InuYasha!" She looked at his dazed expression, her blue eyes dark with worry. "Come on, we have to get out of here."

He shook himself out of his thoughts, shaking his head in denial at her statement. "Kagome . . . I can't . . ." he whispered haltingly. "I've . . . lost too much . . . blood . . ."

"You have to InuYasha!" She helped him struggle to his feet, draping his arm over her barely covered shoulder. He blushed furiously and tried to move away, but she grabbed his wrist firmly before he could. "There's no time for that now . . . besides, it's not as if you haven't ever seen every inch of me before this." Inside, she shivered in fear. He was so weak . . . she's held onto his wrist with hardly any effort at all. 'We have to get back to the village . . . he'll bleed to death like this, especially since he's currently human!' Leaning him up against the cave wall, she went to retrieve Tetsusiaga, blocking out the images of her killing the man as she pulled the sword from his cold body. 'There's no time for that now either!' she scolded herself, retrieving the sheath from the floor nearby. She quickly cleaned the blade and returned it to it's sheath, which she tied across her back with the blood slicked rope from her wrist.

"Come on," she said, taking his weight on her shoulder again. "You know, it's about time I returned the favor . . . you've carried me around for months now." InuYasha smiled weakly at her attempted humor, and concentrated on keeping to his feet.

Together, the wounded hanyou and the young miko left the cave of darkness, entering together into the starlit night.

To Be Continued



AN:

DracOnyx : (laughing insanely) Oh, I'm so vile. So, now what's gonna happen? InuYasha is still hurt pretty bad, and Kagome isn't in the best of condition. Can they get Inu to the village in time before his human body gives out on him? (Cringes as nails poke into her shoulder and tries to cover the monitor screen)

InuYasha : And just what, may I ask, are you doing to me now?

DracOnyx : Ummm . . . Nothing Inu . . . honest! (Sweatdrops, and then squirms as he leans over her shoulder to read, trying not to grab a handful of gorgeous hair and play with a pair of cute ears)

InuYasha : Wench . . . I would never do such stuff. No humans could hurt me that badly . . . even if it IS the new moon.

DracOnyx : Feh! Well . . . if you didn't need help with your relationships . . . uhoh . . . (gets up and edges towards the door) I mean . . . if you would just admit that you love her . . . (gets ready to run) Ummm . . . guys, I'll update again with the next chapter on Sunday, it's a longer one this time. At the moment, I think I better start running. (Waves) See you guys then. And don't forget to review please! I'm a major junkie! (Takes off with a slightly annoyed Hanyou after her)

InuYasha : I DO NOT love her and I DO NOT need help with my relationships!

DracOnyx : (snort) Yeah right.