VAMPYRE
Chapter Two: Crispy Fried Vampire

Author: Hoowee
E-mail: hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com
Warnings: Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.
The original character of Nathania does belong to me.
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue.

....~*~....

Inuyasha was sitting in a tree pondering the problem about where to go to get another Shikon shard when he caught Kagome's scent on the breeze, faint but definitely there. "What's that idiot wench doing turning up in the middle of the night." he growled under his breath, jumping down from the branch where he had spent most of that night, perhaps a bit more eager to see the girl most people took to be Kikyou's reincarnation then he was willing to admit to himself.

"Inuyasha, Kagome's back!" an overly excited Shippou shouted, bounding through the trees to happily grab onto Inuyasha's shoulder.

"She shouldn't have left in the first place. She should be helping us search for Shikon shards." Inuyasha said, stomping in his best grumpy mode towards the bone-eaters well, Shippou still firmly attached to his shoulder chattering on about some garbage that Kagome had filled his head with last time she was there.

"Shut-up, fox." Inuyasha growled. He was not in the mood to listen to Shippou spout shit. The kitsune pulled a rude face at the half-dog demon, adding some disgusting sound effects for good measure to show just how unafraid he was. The only thing that stopped him from acquiring a multitude of bruises was the fact that they both arrived at the well just in time to see if Kagome could defy the laws of gravity and get over the edge of the wooden frame with the weight of her pack dragging her back down to the bottom of the well. The sight just caused Inuyasha to stare for a minute, a sweat drop rolling down the side of his face. 'What the fuck does she put in that bag?' he had no idea, but it looked like gravity wasn't going to give up without a fight. "Baka." he growled and took a hold on her pack, lifting a dangling Kagome out of the well and setting her down on the soft ground next to it.

"Kagome!!" Shippou cried joyfully, leaping from his perch on Inuyasha's shoulder to hug Kagome. "It's so boring here without you!"

"Hello Shippou-chan." Kagome replied, squeezing Shippou slightly as she hugged him back. "I missed you too."

"Well girl, what caused you to come sneaking back here in the middle of the night?" Inuyasha asked, a scornful bite to his words, arms folded in front of his chest.

Kagome, in her usual way, ignored his angry stance and set Shippou down on the ground so that she could stand up straight and face Inuyasha. "I didn't sneak back for your information. I just thought that I should come back and tell you... "

"You didn't sneak back? What do you call turning up at midnight then?" Inuyasha cut in, determined that Kagome admit that she was sneaking.

"I don't call it sneaking! I call it having important information that some ungrateful dog-boy might want to know!" Kagome shouted back at him. 'Ungrateful youkai! I didn't have to come back here and tell him anything, I could've just stayed at home and concentrated on my school work.'

"Feh." Inuyasha just turned his back on her and stared moodily off into the forest. Shippou, still on the ground at Kagome's feet, looked first at one and then the other, wondering who was going to win this argument.

"Inuyasha, would you please listen to me." Kagome pleaded with him, walking around the stubborn half-demon so that she could look him in the eyes.

"Why should I bitch... " The voices of the arguing pair faded out as Shippou became distracted when his ears caught a different sound, a kind of scrabbling sound that was coming from inside the bone eaters well.

Unaware that curiosity killed the kitsune, or was that cat... Shippou crept up to the well, ears twitching. 'I am a demon I will not be afraid. I am a demon I will not be afraid... ' he repeated over and over in his mind, trying to prove the theory that if you say something often enough it will come true. Sidling up next to the well he pressed his back against the element-roughened wood and lifted his head up so that he could see the edge above him. Testing the air with his delicate nose he carefully sniffed the cool night wind, trying to discern what could possibly be following Kagome out of the well. 'Yuck! It smells like old blood.' he gagged, covering up his nose with one of his sleeves and going cross-eyed.

"Hey there cutie-pie!" Shippou looked up to see a yellow haired, ice eyed demon smiling down on him, showing off some very pointy teeth.

"Waahh!!" he cried in fear, leaping onto Kagome's shoulder and trying to hide under her hair.

"Shippou-chan?" Kagome said, twisting her neck so that she could see what had frightened the kitsune so much. That's when she saw Nathania. "Kyaa! Nathania-san!!"

Inuyasha turned around, curious about what a 'Nathania' was. Seeing some strange gaijin trying to hoist herself over the edge of the well, he felt an indescribable hate wash through him colouring everything a red haze. He wanted to slice open her gut with his claws and watch her insides puddle at his feet, he wanted to hear the death rattle of her last breath, he wanted to... he shook his head in disgust. Perhaps he would've done that once, but now he was starting to have to comply with his conscience, which was telling him at this moment that he'd already seen too many humans die.

'Feh. I'm getting soft.' He mentally lashed himself.

Not waiting for an explanation about who the girl was, Inuyasha leapt past Kagome towards the well, grabbing Nathania by her collar and hoisted her bodily out of the well.

"Um... hi Kagome-san... " Nathania smiled guiltily past the angry dog demon at Kagome, lifting her hand to wave in a very half hearted matter.

"How do you know Kagome, bitch?" Inuyasha growled in her face, invading her personal space so much that she actually tried to turtle her head back into her body before remembering that it was impossible, although she did a fairly good impression for all her effort.

"Answer me bitch!" Inuyasha growled again, shaking her this time as if it would shake loose her tongue.

"Inuyasha, stop that!" Kagome said, coming up behind him and grabbing him by his shoulders to reinforce her order. Shippou, still quivering under Kagome's black tresses eeped at coming so close to his 'demon' and scrambled down her back to the ground, hanging onto her leg with a death grip.

Nathania, who had been waiting for the two nasty guys to merge back into their original one nasty guy form, brought her hands up to hold her head together, groaning slightly for good effect.

"Ahhh... remind me to not annoy this guy on purpose." she half mumbled to herself, semi hoping that that 'Nasty-san' as she had internally dubbed him, heard and decided that picking on poor defenceless gaijin was rude. Inuyasha's only response was to shake her again, making Nathania feel slightly sick to the stomach. "Blagh... "

"Inuyasha!" One delicately pointed ear flicked around to Kagome's position followed by his head so that he could glare at her over the shoulder she had just released so she could cross her arms and tap her foot angrily at him.

"What? This wench followed you through the Bone Eaters Well girl and you want me to play nice to her?" He sounded incredulous. Catching a sudden whiff of what he was holding he wrinkled up his nose. "She smells like old blood!"

Coming round from her latest bout of shaking in time to hear this, Nathania lifted her head up so that she could speak into Inuyasha's other ear and said in a sugary sweet voice, "Well it is that time of the month you know."

"Gah!" Inuyasha's head spun around to stare into Nathania's eyes a faint blush rising in his cheeks. Nathania tilted her head to the side and smiled sweetly at him doing her best impression of the 'oh you silly boy' face that all girls manage to master by the time they turn five.

"Inuyasha, put her down, she's a friend." Kagome scolded. 'Well, we were on the way to becoming friends, just not quite yet, so it's not as if I'm being totally untruthful.' She justified to herself.

Inuyasha seemed to be having his usual bad reaction to trying to be nice and was slowly lowering Nathania down to the ground next to the well, grinding his teeth together, still feeling that strange hate bubbling away in his body. Nathania, refusing to have to look up at Nasty-san, immediately stood up, brushing off the seat of her pants.

"Nathania-san, are you all right?" worry filled Kagome's voice as she pushed past the peeved dog demon to stand next to the girl, not noticing the incredibly annoyed look on his face. "He didn't hurt you did he?"

Inuyasha snorted at this comment and walked over to a tree a couple of paces away, but not out of listening distance, to sulk.

"Yeah I'm fine. But Kagome-san, who is that elephant?" Nathania asked, flicking her finger out to point at the grouchy demon.

Shippou, who until that point had refused to let go of Kagome's leg, looked over at Inuyasha, then back at Nathania, eyes wide at what she had just said, tried to muffle a giggle, failed miserably and then fell to the ground laughing hysterically.

Kagome brought her hand up to her mouth to try and hide the smile that threatened to break out on her face. She wasn't very successful. "The one on the ground is Shippou," she added, eyes shining with held back laughter. "And, ah... he is Inuyasha." She couldn't help it, a giggle escaped.

"Bwa ha ha ha!! Inuyasha's an elephant!" Shippou shouted, rolling by on the ground.

Suddenly realising that the 'elephant' comment had been about him, Inuyasha's head snapped around in shock. "Who the fuck do you think you're calling an 'elephant' bitch?!"

"Woops, wrong word again Kagome-san?" Nathania asked, seemingly unconcerned that she had just done exactly what she had told everyone to stop her from doing, namely annoying Inuyasha.

"Listen bitch... " Inuyasha started to say, walking menacingly towards Nathania, but was suddenly stopped short as a small pink elephant paraded in front of him trumpeting loudly.

"Wha...? Where did that come from?" Nathania asked no one in particular, leaning down to get a better look at the tiny, discoloured pachyderm. "I don't normally see these unless I'm drunk." She joked to Kagome, who was having a hard time not cracking up.

Inuyasha's reaction to this was a lot less restrained then Nathania's. He snarled and brought his fist down on top of the little elephant causing it to transformed back into its' original form of Shippou.

"Wak!!" The little kitsune cried, struggling to get out from under the older demons fist.

"Oh come on Inuyasha, it was just a joke, don't take it so seriously." Kagome said smiling at him cutely, hoping he wouldn't do something rash. Unfortunately, Inuyasha was rather good at doing rash things just when people didn't want him to.

"You bitch. Let's see what you think about this!" He spat out at Nathania, letting his anger boil over, cracking his knuckles and leaping towards her, intent on slashing her throat out.

"SIT!"

Doomf. Inuyasha landed on the ground just as quickly as he had left it, groaning slightly from the sudden impact.

"Cool trick Kagome-san! Can I learn it?"

Inuyasha glared at Nathania from his position on the ground, his mouth set in a silent snarl. 'If that bitch lays one hand on Kagome I'll...' he didn't know what he'd do, nor did he know why he felt so much hate for the gaijin, he just knew that he'd happily tear her to pieces if Kagome wouldn't have been so upset about it.

Nathania, by this point, seemed to have had enough time to get herself together and from the groups point of view, it looked like she had just noticed that she wasn't in Kansas any more, as the saying goes, as she was staring rather quizzically at the forest around them.

"Um... Kagome-san, I have another question." Nathania said, half raising he hand as if she was sitting in class waiting for the teacher to take notice of her.

"Is it about elephants?" Kagome giggled. In the background they both heard a "Feh." as Inuyasha proclaimed his disgust at the topic, but this didn't seem to break Nathania's inquiring mind.

"What's an elephant?" the question popped out of her mouth before she had time to think about it properly. Kagome stared at her in wonder.

'She truly has no idea what she just said?' It just seemed impossible that someone could throw in the silliest word at the funniest times and not know what she was doing. Nathania, who had gotten down on her knees, trying to coax an edgy Shippou out of hiding finally noticed the funny look Kagome was giving her and decided she better ask what was actually on her mind.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I don't particularly need to know what an elephant is." She grinned up at Kagome, shifting her weight to sit cross-legged on the ground so that she could pull Shippou into her lap and began scratching him on the head.

"Inuyasha's an elephant." Shippou said with a smile, enjoying the attention Nathania was paying to him, even if he was a bit uneasy about her strange colouring.

"I bet he is too." She replied, looking down at the cute kitsune who giggled at the idiotic idea of Inuyasha as an elephant. "But what I did want to ask Kagome-san is... well... where the hell are we?"

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Mr Nakamura was sitting down in his favourite comfy chair again after a quick toilet break so that he could watch the rest of his favourite soap that he had had to tape this past week or face not seeing it at all because he was too busy answering questions for the police, reporters and seeing his psychiatrist. This time though he didn't have a can of beer in his hand, only a cup of hot tea. 'Beer does strange stuff to the mind.' he thought clenching his over sized hands around the warm cup, breathing in it's herbal aroma.

Thump, thump, thump.

Mr Nakamura jumped a foot in the air, spilling his hot drink down the front of his shirt as someone pounded on his front door.

"Bloody hell!" He shouted, not in the least amused about having scorched himself or in having added yet another shirt to the washing this week.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Keep ya bloody shirt on!" He yelled in the general direction of the door as he took his off, replacing it with his 'I pee in the shower and I vote' t-shirt that had been hanging over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.

Thump, thump, thump.

Whoever was outside was not in a patient mood.

Stomping over to the door in a foul mood, Mr Nakamura opened it with a bit more force then was necessary, causing it to slam into the wall and bounce back, hitting him in the face, adding to his anger. Seeing a group of young girls on his front porch, mostly gaijin, some not, alleviated some of his temper. It wasn't everyday that a bunch of pretty young things turned up on his doorstep, hell, come to think about it, it had never happened before.

"Ah, what can I do for you lovely ladies?" He asked smirking and leering at a pretty red-head with freckles. She didn't smile back.

"Urk!" his eyes widened in shock as the blonde in front of him whipped out some kind of pointy stick and pointed it at his heart.

"You can go quietly back into your house and answer our questions." Her voice sent fear shivering through Mr Nakamura's body, sliding around his soul like ice. 'She sounds like she's bloody dead.' The thought echoed around his head as he edged back into his home trying to avoid the pointy thing until he felt the back of his comfy chair against his legs.

"Tell us everything you know about Nathania." The blonde said, not a hint of emotion entering into her voice, pushing the stake harder against his chest causing the large man to fall backwards into his seat.

"Who the bloody hell is Nathania?" Mr Nakamura asked, refusing to let this little snip of a gaijin see how much she was frightening him, glancing from one pretty face to the next, trying to out stare them all and failing miserably in the face of such a lack of emotion.

Up on the mantle Mr Nakamura's mini grandfather clock struck the hour.

'What kind of girls bloody break into a strange man's home at four o'clock in the morning? What kind of girls bloody act like they're the bloody Grim Reapers brides?' He asked himself, beginning to break a sweat as the stake pressed even harder into his skin, drawing blood.

"Don't lie to us Nakamura-san." A young Japanese girl said, ice-fire flashing in her eyes as she produced a wicked looking curved knife. "You'll regret it."

A strange sound worked it's way out of Mr Nakamura's throat. Something that could almost pass for a whimper.

...~*~....

'Nathania-san seems to be taking this transported to the past idea pretty well' Kagome thought to herself as the group trudged back to the village, Nathania throwing Shippou up in the air and then catching him again, Inu Yasha stomping along behind them growling curses under his breath about ice-eyed gaijin who should know better then to follow Japanese girls into strange looking wells that they know nothing about.

'It's almost creepy how easily she accepted that we're now four hundred years in the past. All she said about it was "cool". She didn't even make a face about it, just accepted it and from that put together that the story I had told her concerning the Shikon no Tama was actually about me and Inuyasha.' Remembering Inuyasha's reaction to when Nathania had asked her if he was the dog that she had acquired brought a slight smirk to her face. 'Let him chew on that for awhile.' she giggled to herself, picturing again the look of total surprise that had appeared on his face. Feeling the suns first rays of light hit her in the face, Kagome sighed, half listening to Shippou as he question Nathania about her 'demonic' coloured hair and eyes. All around the group the forest started to turn a beautiful rose-gold colour as dawn chased away the cold loving shadows of the night.

"Kagome-san, how much longer until we come to this village?" Nathania asked, walking quickly up behind her, Shippou hitching a ride on her shoulder.

"Not that long now." Kagome smiled at her new friend. "But if you're going to talk to me now that you know my secret you're going to have to do something special." She gave Nathania a mock frown as the gaijin girl laughed at the silliness of it.

"Oh, and what might that be Kagome-san? Will I have to bring you the Golden Fleece or something of equal difficulty?" She laughed again, tickling Shippou under the chin causing him to join in with her infectious laughter.

"Nope. You just have to quit putting 'san' after my name." This caused Nathania to give Kagome a quick stare, eyebrows raising slightly as if to say, 'Have I made another mistake?'

"It's just that it makes us sound so much like strangers when we're not any more." Kagome explained, hoping that Nathania felt the same as she did. What the gaijin said next confirmed that.

"Okay Kagome, but fairs fair. If I have to quit saying 'san' then so do you. Deal?" Nathania stuck out her hand staring at Kagome with a broad smile on her face that she just couldn't help but smile back at. Nathania was just one of those girls that spread laughter like it was the cheapest thing in the world, easier to come by then air.

"It's a deal, Nathania." She said seriously, taking the other girls hand and shaking it to close the deal. Then the entire thing just became to silly for the both of them and they simultaneously fell to the ground giggling.

"What are you bitches so happy about." a grouchy Inuyasha snapped at the two girls as he stalked up to them.

"Just friendships and how silly some start." Nathania replied, standing up again, picking up Shippou and putting him back onto her shoulder where he cuddled into her, having decided that she wasn't a demon after all, just a funny coloured person. "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Inuyasha." She grinned leaning back down to help Kagome up to her feet. It was at that unfortunate moment that the sun decided to reflect off of her Shikon fragment earring.

"A Shikon shard!" Inuyasha breathed, eyes widening with shock at seeing something so precious to him turn up on the idiotic gaijin. "Give it to me." He ordered, his hand reaching out to take it from her.

"Whoa! Slow down dog-boy, this four souls thingie is mine." Nathania said, stepping back out of reach. "The only person I'm giving this to is Kagome. I think. I'm not sure yet if I will." She frowned back at the dog demon, exchanging glare for glare.

"Kagome, did you know she had a shard?!" He turned and yelled at her, unwilling to give up.

Yes, actually I did." Kagome frowned back at Inuyasha as his jaw dropped in surprise.

"How could you keep something like this from me wench?!" He shouted. 'How could she not tell me?' he asked himself. 'She knows how much the Shikon no Tama means to me.'

"If you remember I did try to tell you about it, but you where too interested in trying to make me say that I was sneaking back here you jerk!" She shouted back, refusing to be cowed by the dog demons anger. Inuyasha breathed in deeply. He was NOT going to let a Shikon shard slide through his fingers. Waiting until Kagome turned away from him to apologise to the gaijin, he suddenly leapt at Nathania before any of the rest of the group had time to react, reaching for the earring resting safely on the girls ear lobe.

"INUYASHA! SIT!!" Kagome screeched, stopping the demon mid-leap again for the second time that morning. "Inuyasha!" How could you do something like that? That shard belongs to Nathania." If you'd asked nicely she might have given it to you but nooo, you have to try and take it from her by force don't you." Kagome yelled over to where Inuyasha was lying on the ground. Reacting to her voice, Inuyasha raised his head off the ground and smirked back at her.

"What?" Kagome asked, frowning with suspicion. Then she saw the bloody shard that Inuyasha was holding up in his other hand.

"Oh Nathania, I'm so sorry!" Kagome apologised to the thunderstruck girl, bowing low in embarrassment. Suddenly Shippou jumped into the air letting out a shriek as if something had bit him.

"HOT! HOT!" He screeched running towards Kagome, grasping at the seat of his pants.

"Wha... " Kagome started to ask the scorched kitsune but was cut off as Nathania let out a scream of utter pain.

Inuyasha, still lying on the ground recovering from his latest 'Sit' covered his sensitive ears with his hands, wincing with pain at the horrendous noise that Nathania was producing from her vocal chords.

"You BASTARD!" Nathania screamed, smoke pouring off of her body.

'What's going on?' Kagome thought, staring at Nathania, shocked into stillness.

Nathania started screaming again. A high, piercing note of absolute torture that rose in volume as the seconds progressed, causing Kagome to sink to her knees clutching a sobbing Shippou to her chest.

Then suddenly, there was silence.

Kagome and Inuyasha, both totally unprepared for what was happening, looked up at Nathania just in time to see her gasp out a huge amount of smoke that twined around her body like living vines and then burst into blue flames.

"Nathania, what's happening to you?" Kagome whispered.

To Be Continued...

Notes from Hoowee:
Just for those wondering where they are, this story is set before Miroku and Sango turn up, but not by much.  If the story plays out like I've planned it then the houshi should turn up in either the next chapter or the one after that.  (Hmm.  The more I write to this the more chapters I see occurring.) I don't know if I'll use Sango though. You never know though, if enough people want her there then she might just turn up at some point. ^.~v And just for anyone who thinks Inuyasha was being too nasty in this chapter, I agree with you, but it's all part of my master plan.  (Maniacal laughter.)

Quote: You don't have to be afraid of the monster lurking in the dark if you are that monster - "?" Movie