VAMPYRE
Chapter Three: Nathania

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 climbed unsteadily to his feet, hands still covering both of his ears. Quickly checking over his shoulder to see how Kagome was he saw that she had fallen unconscious, hugging the badly scared kitsune to her as if he was her anchor against a terrible storm. Deciding that Kagome was in no immediate danger, Inuyasha turned back to the scene he had, through his own ignorance, caused.

The blue flames that had enveloped Nathania licked at any foliage within reach, but nothing caught aflame, more it seemed that the rich green fauna was trying to lean away from the hell flame, writhering in pain as the unholy thing caressed it.

"What the fuck are you!?" Inuyasha shouted, moving no closer to the flaming girl, who in her intense pain had curled up into a ball, wrapping herself in her arms as if that would shield her from the destruction that was being wrought upon her body.

Nathania raised her head and through the flickering blue film Inuyasha could see two streams of blood tears falling down her face, which was quickly becoming savagely burnt and blistered.

"What would you care." The words were said so softly that it was only due to Inuyasha's sensitive ears that he could pick up the sentence at all and still with that advantage he had to lean closer to the unnatural pyre to catch what she said. That was his one mistake.

Nathania suddenly sprang up from her foetal position, reaching, no, more grasping desperately at Inuyasha's hand. Demon reflexes coming into play, Inuyasha leapt backwards to avoid her flaming grasp, drawing Tetsusaiga in one clean sweeping motion, but the magical blade did not transform.

"Shit" Inuyasha swore through clenched teeth, waving Tetsusaiga around in front of him as if it had a faulty connection that a little jerk could fix.

"Doesn't work does it Inuyasha." That was not a question. That was a statement.

Glancing up from his malfunctioning sword, Inuyasha saw a pointy toothed, Nathania grinning merrily.

"What?" You're not burning to death any more?" He asked incredulously, staring in disgust at the living corpse. All of her skin had been burnt away until only a thin covering of muscle sheathed her bones, but shining brightly in her skull were two ice blue eyes glittering, reflecting the rays of the rising sun.

"Nope. Got back my shard." That got Inuyasha's attention. Looking down at his hand, (the one that wasn't holding the Tetsusaiga) he saw burn scars ribboning up it to his wrist but felt no pain, only a curious coolness from the disfigurement he had received. Opening his hand from the clenched fist that it had formed to protect the stolen shard he saw nothing but his own blistered flesh. He hadn't even felt her take it.

"You fucking bitch! Give it back! He shouted, looking up to see Nathania try to reattach the shard to her ear, only to discover...

"Arg!! I don't have an ear lobe any more! It burned away! Now I'm PEEVED!"

Behind Inuyasha, Kagome sat up suddenly, eyes wide with fright accidentally squeezing the still unconscious Shippou too hard, causing him to squeak slightly as he too woke up. Glancing around as she stood up, wobbling a bit from going from horizontal to vertical so quickly, she saw Inuyasha standing with his back to her waving the untransformed Tetsusaiga at something she couldn't quite see because of his body blocking her view and the sun streaming into her eyes. Blinking rapidly and raising a hand to try and shade her eyes, Kagome cuddled a shivering Shippou closer to her, trying not to squish him this time and called out to the half demon.

"Inuyasha! Where's Nathania?!" the fear she felt for her friend expressing itself through her voice. 'What happened to you Nathania? What caused you to catch fire like that?'

Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder in disbelief. 'She's worried about this demon?'

Nathania, silently thanking Kagome for the distraction, leaped forward to cover the distance between herself and her opponent and punched Inuyasha as hard as she could in the stomach. The dog demon hunched over slightly as all the air ran out of his lungs, backhanding Nathania with the hilt of the Tetsusaiga causing her to fly backwards and slam into a tree with enough force to temporarily cause her to black out.

"Dammit Kagome! That Nazania friend of yours isn't human!" He shouted behind him to where Kagome now stood staring, eyes wide at what Inuyasha had indicated through his little speech, was Nathania. The being of charred muscle and bone had regained consciousness and was trying to rise to her feet, using the tree she had slammed into as a support for her weight.

"It's Nathania you git. Na-Tha-Ni-A. At least try and get my name right."

Pushing away from the tree Nathania slowly started walking towards Inuyasha who had backed up to Kagome, trying to make sure that she was not open to any surprise attacks from the gaijin.

"Nathania what's wrong?! What happened?!" Nathania brought her head up to look Kagome straight in the eyes, her body swaying slightly as she came to a stand still.

"What happened? Nasty-san here took away my SPF 100+ that's what happened!" Nathania spat out, anger prominent in her voice as she tried to take another step towards Inuyasha but because of her recent 'tanning' and the ensuing fight she was much too weak and the badly burned muscles in her legs gave out causing her to topple to the ground groaning in pain.

"Nathania!" Kagome yelled, racing around Inuyasha to the girls side, hesitating to actually touch her burned skin for fear of causing her more pain.

"Kagome you idiot, she's the bad guy!" Inuyasha shouted, running up behind her and hauling her back away from Nathania who had recovered slightly and was trying to sit up again, joints creaking horribly as she forced them to take there normal positions. Sighing softly, she looked up to see Inuyasha glaring down on her, holding Kagome back by the shoulders. She couldn't see where Shippou was.

"I know it's almost tradition at this point for me to insult you and then try to still win a fight that I know I'll lose, but do you think we could break with tradition this time and try to talk this out?" She asked, her voice beginning to take on a raspy note as she finished the sentence.

"Feh." As if we'd trust your word when you've just tried to... ah?" Inuyasha stopped in mid-sentence as Kagome, who had somehow gotten herself free from him, sat down next to Nathania and started glaring up at him.

"I think that's the smartest idea I've heard so far." She said to Nathania, pointedly ignoring the gaping half demon.

"I'm guessing that you're wanting an explanation of my flaming performance...?" Nathania half asked Kagome but kept glancing up to Inuyasha, knowing that he was just as intrigued and a lot happier to kill if her explanation didn't live up to his standards. Catching him sneering at her she smiled back at him. Unfortunately, because all the skin and muscle around her mouth had been burned back her smile showed off her fangs to their best advantage, long and sharp.

"Answer my question from before bitch, what are you?" Inuyasha said, sitting down right in front of her, the Tetsusaiga resting in his lap, easily within reaching distance if she tried to pull anything.

Much to his annoyance, all she did was grin all the more, a truly gruesome sight when bone, skin and muscle are all melted together.

"I take it you don't run into a lot of my kind in Japan huh? Well if you can pronounce it, I'm a vampire." This produced a noticeable lack of a surprised reaction. If anything, Inuyasha just glared at her harder. But Kagome, sitting to Nathania's right, her legs folded neatly to the side, frowned slightly as if she were trying to remember something.

"What the fuck's a 'bamupaire'?" The dog demon snarled, leaning in to stare Nathania right in the eyes. Nathania, feeling rather light headed, stuck out her tongue at him. "It's 'vampire' you git. With a 'V'." Inu Yasha snorted and leaned back again, hand resting on the Tetsusaiga.

"You mean you're like Durakura?" Kagome asked suddenly, swinging around so that she could look at Nathania properly.

Nathania felt a sweat drop slide down the side of her cratered face.

"Durakura? Pardon me Kagome, but what's a 'Durakura'?"

"Count Durakura. I think he was a... vampire, from Transylvania." Kagome clarified, brow furrowing as she concentrated, trying to remember what she had heard about the gaijin story in her English class.

"Oh, Dracula! Yes, well, I'm kinda like Dracula, but you've got to remember that he was a fictional vampire so the author was able to take a lot of poetic licence to make it more... interesting I guess. Some things are the same, some aren't." After saying that Nathania brought her arms around her body, hugging herself as a sudden fit of shivers racked her body.

"Nathania?" Kagome asked, putting her hands on the vampire's shoulders only to snatch them back again. 'Her skin's so hot. It's as if she's still burning inside.' She thought, massaging the scalded flesh on her palms.

"Sorry about that." Nathania rasped softly, unfolding herself so that she was sitting up straight again. "Hell-fire's a nasty thing. It's been so long since I last struggled with it I'd forgotten that it likes to inflict pain long after the flame itself is gone." Inuyasha snorted.

"I still don't know what a... vampire is bi... " He stopped the sentence when he saw Kagome glaring at him, shrugged his shoulders, then continued. "...girl. And I don't know what a 'Durakura' is either. So... " drawing out the sentence, he looked up from the Tetsusaiga and snarled at Nathania.

"... tell me just what kind of damn youkai you are or I rip out your rib cage and wear it as a hat.

"Fine, fine. Enough with the graphic threats." Nathania sighed theatrically and struck a pose. "It all began... " Suddenly she stopped. "Um, Kagome, just how far back in the past are we?"

"About 400 years... I think." Kagome answered, slightly confused.

"What the fuck's that got to do with what you are?!" Inu Yasha growled, impatient as always.

"It's backing story you elephant. Vampires aren't like your average youkai you know. We all start out quite human." Inuyasha snorted at the elephant comment, but let it slide. 'She's just a stupid gaijin, what does she know.' He thought to himself. Then he caught the last part of what she said.

"You're human?!" He asked surprised, hand curling around the Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"I didn't say that. I said I started out as a human. Now, if I can continue with my grand story...?" Nathania looked over to Kagome, eyes large and shining in what on a normal person would have been a puppy dog gaze, but on a half-naked, fried vampire, the effect was frightening. Kagome swallowed loudly and glanced over to Inu Yasha, but the dog demon was lost in thought, his burned hand running lightly over the blade of the fang.

"Umm... sure." Kagome said, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Okay. Like I was saying before Nasty-san interrupted here... " Hearing this Inuyasha started to pay attention properly. 'She may be a stupid gaijin, but... she's not a human or a youkai either, this explanation could be interesting.' He thought to himself.

"... it all began, or will begin, in about forty to fifty years from now. My name was Nathania Elida Heyward and I was nineteen, almost an old maid. Papa had such terrible trouble trying to get me betrothed, I was wild and not at all what a poor European farmer wanted for a wife." Nathania chuckled softly to herself, remembering some unvoiced pranks of her girl-hood. "Eventually he threw me out of home, not willing to keep feeding an extra mouth that caused so much trouble, not when I had eight younger siblings and most of them boys, much more able to help Papa out on the farm." Mamma cried so hard but I thought it was just going to be another grand adventure and I left singing a song that I can't even remember any more." Nathania smiled softly at her own foolishness. "By winter I was half dead. I was starving, dirty and disease riddled from all the times I had sold my body for food or shelter. Such a pathetic creature I had become that I'm surprised that I drew even a vampire's attention. But I did. He just walked up one night and introduced himself as Colvin. No last name, no title. Not that I cared that much, not when he was offering free food. I should have paid more attention, maybe then I would have remembered that Colvin means 'dark friend', maybe I still wouldn't have cared, it doesn't matter that much any more.

He was such a good friend that night, listening to my grievances and cleaning me up whenever I was sick, but at dawn he left, no matter how much I pleaded with him to stay with me. He said that he'd come back again at dusk but just the thought of being alone again was frightening. I would have chased after him if I hadn't been so weak.

That day I just lay on the side of the road in a ditch without the strength to even move out of my own vomit and mess. God the stench was incredible. All day I lay there, shouting out to any passer-by, cursing them when they left, scurrying past like frightened mice to get away from the mad girl. When night returned so too did he. I was so happy. Not so much that he'd come back but that he'd kept his promise to me and I wouldn't have to be alone. He said that he had more food but that it had been too much to carry to me so he'd decided instead to carry me to it. He did too. Just picked me up in his arms and walked half the night. Oh how I marvelled at how strong he was, and how romantic to be carried through the night by such a handsome man. Not long past midnight we came to a copse of trees were he set me down next to another man... " Nathania stopped her story suddenly and glanced around at the trees surrounding the trio.

"What are you doing bitch? For all your 'backing story' you still haven't told me anything." Inuyasha growled. But then his ears caught what had attracted Nathania's attention.

"Inuyasha, what's happening?" Kagome whispered, creeping closer to the half demon and scanning the trees with her human eyes.

"FOX FIRE!"

Inuyasha pulled Kagome out of the flaming fire-balls path, jumping back just in time. Nathania though, wasn't so lucky. Not being able to move quickly enough to get out of the fire-balls path she took the full force of the attack head on, not letting out even a whimper as the heat exploded around her.

"Nathania!" Kagome screamed, half deafening Inuyasha who still had a tight hold on her in case she tried to do something stupid again like run over to the burning vampire.

"Again with the frying! Does somebody up there have PMS?!" Nathania asked sarcastically, standing up slowly, her joints creaking.

' Looking around she saw strange men rise out of their hiding spots all around her, holding bows with arrows cocked, all pointing directly at her.

"Kagome! I brought the men from the village to save you! Shippou cried, leaping from the shoulder of one of the men into Kagome's waiting arms.

"You stupid fox, you almost got Kagome and me with that fox fire trick of yours!" Inuyasha growled, releasing his grip on Kagome so that he could take a swipe at the kitsune.

"Oh! Nathania!" Kagome cried, turning quickly to look over to where the girl had been sitting when the fox fire had hit her. Much to Kagome's surprise, Nathania was standing up, arms crossed awkwardly in front of her chest, death-glaring all the villagers.

"Where... What happened to the fox fire?" Kagome stuttered, seeing none of the red glowing flame anywhere around Nathania.

"Just another perk to being a vampire, only hell-fire burns me any more." Nathania answered, trying to keep herself covered. "Although it did burn away the rest of my clothes... " She half muttered to herself, hunching over slightly. Hearing a rustle of clothe she looked up just in time to catch Inuyasha's coat.

"I still don't trust you bitch." He growled. Catching Kagome staring at him he frowned at her. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"That was very sweet Inuyasha." Kagome smiled at him, walking over to Nathania who was just finishing tying the coat around herself. Shippou scrunched down in Kagome's arms as she approached Nathania, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Seeing him there, Nathania gave what she hoped was a comforting smile, something that's incredible hard to do when most of your face is a blistered, cracked mess.

"Hey there Shippou. Did you do that fox fire trick?" She asked bending down to him. Shippou eeped and tried to burrow under Kagome's arm.

"I'll take that as a yes." Nathania grinned. "Don't worry Shippou, your fire didn't hurt me and you were only doing what you thought was right, I can't really blame you for that." Shippou lifted his head and stared back at Nathania.

"Just don't do it again, I doubt that Inuyasha would like his coat to go up in flames." Nathania laughed.

Kagome smiled at her comment, thinking about how the coat had actually saved her from being burnt to death when she and Inuyasha were fighting Yura of the hair.

"Somehow I don't think you have to worry about that." Kagome said, happy to have her friend back, even if she was a bit fried. Looking around she saw all the men glancing at each other, obviously wondering what was going on.

"Um... everything's alright, Nathania's a friend." She called out to them.

"Yup, I promise not to suck on any of your necks, 'kay." Nathania piped up.

The bows that had been slowly lowering suddenly all in unison swung back up to point back at her. Kagome sighed.

"Honestly, she's a good youkai... like Shippou and Inuyasha. Inuyasha snorted when he heard that comment, but it seemed to calm down the village men as they lowered their bows and started walking back to their homes, mumbling slightly about having been woken up so early and how it was useless to try to go back to sleep now that the sun had risen.

"Umm... Kagome, I'm not sure you can class a vampire as a youkai. Nathania whispered to the girl standing next to her.

"Then what IS a vampire." Inuyasha said, stalking over to where the girls and the kitsune were, his dog ears able to pick out Nathania's comment. "For all your 'backing story' I still don't know what you are."

Nathania fidgeted slightly, a little uncomfortable with the half demons gaze.

"Well, um... to cut a long story short, I became a vampire not long after where I left off and now have to drink blood to survive. Sunlight causes me to burst into hell fire but thanks to this Jewel of Four Souls thingie I can move around in the day, it's really quite handy." She smiled over to Kagome. "But if you really need it I suppose I can hand it over." Just tell me when you've collected the rest of the jewel and I'll give it too you. That's a promise."

"Feh." As if we're going to tell you when the Shikon no Tama is completely recovered so you can steal it." Inuyasha spat, not at all happy with Nathania's proposed plan.

"Listen Nasty-san, one shard is all I need to combat the one thing that can kill me, sunlight, and I've already got that, I don't want or need the rest of the thing." Nathania stated, sticking her finger up at the angry demon.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Kagome, who had been thinking about how to get some proper clothes for Nathania.

"Kyaa! I left my back pack at the well!" She wailed. "Inuyasha could you pleeaase go and get it for me?" She begged the dog demon who was still having a staring contest with Nathania.

"Yeah, go fetch doggie." Nathania cooed, shooing him with her hand.

Inuyasha snarled a foul curse at Nathania and, grumbling to himself about stupid girls, gaijin or otherwise, he started trudging back to the bone eaters well while Kagome, Shippou and Nathania walked the opposite direction towards the village.

"I didn't think he'd go that easily." Kagome whispered to Nathania, hoping they were out of range of the half demons sensitive ears. Nathania just laughed softly.

"Old Jedi mind trick." Nathania giggled. "Just another perk of being a vampire. I can't read minds but I can send out emotions that other people tend to latch onto."

Giggling to each other, the two girls and Shippou kept on walking.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Nami and Kuni were on their way back from Kagome's house after having been there to find out what illness was preventing her from attending her classes this time.

"Poor Kagome. Imagine having deciduous collateral trouble with your pseudopods. Kuni sighed, not realising the ridiculousness of her statement.

"Yeah." Nami agreed, frowning. Something about that ailment didn't sound quite right. "It's probably the reason why she didn't come back last night too." She commented but Kuni wasn't paying any attention, instead she was looking over to a shadowed alley where a group of six girls were staring at them.

"Delinquents." she muttered under her breath, picking up her pace as the other group started to send her rude hand gestures, forcing Nami to run a couple of steps to catch up with her.

"Hey, do you think we should tell Hojo about Kagome?" She asked, a match-making plan taking formation in her mind.

Heads close together as they giggled their way through a Kagome/Hojo scheme, neither of the girls seeing the other group smile after them, then, perfectly timed, turn their heads towards Kagome's house, still smiling.

....~*~....

A droplet of pure crimson hung delicately off the tip of Nathania's finger as she studied it, holding it up to the harsh light of the newly risen moon. Slowly, gravity took its final hold on the tear shaped liquid, breaking the connection it had to a pulse, leaving it to fall through the cool night air. The ground at Nathania's feet cared little about the drop when it hit. The slightest amount of dust rose from the tiny impact but, just as silently as it had been raised, it soon settled once again back onto the earth, not noticing as the hungry soil absorbed the red liquid back into itself.

'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.' Nathania mused to herself, feeling the night breeze flow over abused body and then leave to blow around the pile of broken rat bodies she had piled up behind her.

"Nathania. How are you feeling?" Kagome asked, walking up behind the girl, carefully stepping around the gruesome mound and sitting down next to her, concern showing on her face.

"Better I guess" came the lacklustre reply, Nathania still staring at the soaked earth at her feet. "I don't feel like I'm burning up inside any more. But Kagome, rats blood just isn't going to work." With this said she stood up suddenly, kicking the ground viciously, sending up a dust cloud.

"Are you sure Nathania? We could try something bigger I guess... " Kagome's sentence trailed off as she looked up to Nathania who was shaking her head.

"Yes I'm sure Kagome. I could drink a million rats dry and I'd still be this walking corpse like thing. I need human blood." She looked down at Kagome, smiling as she put her hands into the pockets of the trousers she had borrowed off the girl, scrounging a pair out of her back pack along with a shirt, no simple task since Kagome had a penchant for wearing skirts.

"Ah, but therein lies the problem doesn't it. I promised you that I wouldn't drink the blood of anyone from this village didn't I." She laughed at herself and lent down to offer her hand to Kagome so that she could pull her up.

Feeling Nathania's dry, cracked skin next to hers Kagome suppressed a shudder.

'But it feels cool now, not burning.' She thought, standing up so that she was facing Nathania.

"It must be terrible to have to kill to have to survive." Kagome sympathised, pity for Nathania showing.

"Oh I don't have to kill them when I feed. I just do." Nathania said, staring up at the moon.

"WHAT!" Kagome edged back from the vampire, not too sure how to take this statement.

"Don't look at me like that Kagome. There's always going to be something higher then something else on the food chain and vampires prey on humans. I kill indiscriminately, one week it could be a middle aged business man the next a school girl. I'm just another of nature's ways of keeping the human population from exploding over the planet, no nicer then disease or famine but needed just the same."

"But, if you don't have to kill, if you have that concious decision... " Kagome asked, wondering finally about what kind of friend she had made when she met Nathania.

"I've been through the moral debate a thousand times before Kagome and every time I run up against a brick wall. I'm here to kill humans and that's the end of it." Nathania sighed, obviously not too impressed with her options.

"But I can't do that here can I? You're my friend, or at least that's how I think of you, and I don't want to hurt you or any of your friends. Best sure-fire way of not getting eaten by a vampire... make friends with them. So, after thinking about it, I've decided to wander off for a while, see who I can feed off, that sort of thing." Nathania shifted her gaze from the moon back to Kagome's face, searching her features for some sign of revulsion at the fact Nathania had just put to her."

"Do you have to leave right now? You could wait until Lady Kaede comes back. Maybe she could do something... " Kagome stopped, seeing Nathania take her first step towards the forest.

"I'll be back here in a week or two, okay Kagome, and by then I'll be back to my normal old self." She grinned at her friend and then started running, not looking back.

"Feh. I'm glad she's gone." leaping down off of Keade's roof, Inuyasha landed beside Kagome, staring after the retreating vampire, arms folded in front of his chest. "She just better keep her promise and hand over that Shikon shard when we need it." He growled. Looking over his shoulder he saw Kagome still watching as Nathania vanished into the forests trees.

"She'll be back." Kagome stated, not knowing if that would be a good or a bad thing.

To Be Continued...

Notes from Hoowee:
Yes, the Durakura bit was silly but I needed it so that Nathania would have difficulty in understanding what Kagome meant and it IS difficult trying to figure out some English words when they're pronounced with a Japanese accent.
Just for the curious Nathania is the feminine version of Nathaniel, (well duh) which is Hebrew for 'God has given.' Or at least that's what it says in my little book of '2,000 Babies Names: With origins and meanings'. Handy little book that. Oh, and Heyward apparently means 'dweller by the dark forest', while Elida means 'the exiled'. Go figure.
ARG!! The chapters grow! Looking on my little planning sheet it now shows a grand total of seven chapters and an epilogue. Good grief, can you put up with that much crappy writing?
Just on a finishing note, ten points to anyone who can pick the Buffy quote I threw into the story!

Quote: Every light casts a shadow and no shadow can exist without a light. - "?".