VAMPYRE
Chapter Five: Never Annoy a Demon on the First Date (Part A)

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.

....~*~....

"*Groan*"

Inu Yasha looked over to where Kagome was sitting next to the still unconscious Nathania and frowned, not at all happy about how close she was to an unknown danger.

All the while that Nathania had been gone he'd been looking over his shoulder, wondering when the vampire would turn up again and if his innate hate for her had been tempered in the time that she'd been away feasting. But it hadn't. Just as soon as she had shown her face again that rage had come back, bubbling through his veins, heating his blood until he felt sure that his next movement would be to reach over to tear out her heart with his bare hand.

Clenching it into a fist he looked down and forced himself to relax his grip with a sigh. Maybe he felt like doing that but he knew that unless Nathania gave him a valid reason he never would... perhaps he had gone soft from being around Kagome so much... he didn't know and what was worse, he was starting to care. Stretching his fingers out he studied his hand and wrist, noting the scaring that Nathania had put there when she had grabbed him with the hell fire had disappeared. Thanks to his youkai blood it had healed faster then any mortal could possibly hope.

In his minds eye he could still see the torment the hell fire had wreaked upon the vampire's body, eating away at her flesh until she had become not much more then a walking skeleton of melted flesh, and yet when she had grabbed at his wrist he had felt nothing but a faint coolness where the flames had laced around his hand. He looked over to where she lay again, taking in the newly grown pink skin, the muscles that were slightly defined underneath it and the long gold-white hair that had spread out beneath her head like a angels' halo and shuddered. She was healed, totally healed, and to do that... Nathania's way of healing, by drinking the blood of other creatures... disgust rose in his throat and lodged itself there, bringing with it a vile taste. She was no angel. She was a demon. The thought brought a twisted smile to his lips. 'Yes, she's a demon. And isn't that what you want to become so badly?'

"Inu Yasha?"

"Huh?"

The half youkai turned his attention back to the houshi, surprised at himself for letting his thoughts wander like that in the middle of a conversation.

Miroku sighed. He had a funny feeling that Inu Yasha wasn't going to be able to help him much in the way of information about the strange girl that had so suddenly dropped into the lives of the group.

"Perhaps you could.... " Miroku stopped talking as he noticed that Inu Yasha had drifted off in thought again, a frown creasing his forehead.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Miroku gave up on questioning Inu Yasha and walked over to Kagome, gently placing his hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"How is she?" He asked, voice low in concern in concern.

Kagome looked up from the blonde girl she was caring for, her face a picture of sadness. Under her cool hand she felt Nathania's features twist into a silent scream again and mumble something in English. 'Col... something.' Kagome thought, trying to do justice to all those English lessons she had taken and pick out the strange syllables of the foreign language.

Frowning suddenly she swatted the priests wandering hand away and glared at him.

Miroku stared back at her, eyes wide, the picture of pure innocence.

Kagome rolled her eyes and shifted slightly to put a little more distance between them.

"She's just the same as she was an hour ago when she passed out. Unconscious and dreaming some very bad dreams." she answered, keeping a sharp watch on where Miroku's hands were placed.

The Houshi nodded his head sagely and sat down cross-legged on the earth opposite Kagome. Looking at her from across the gaijin's body he noted the weariness in her face. 'This strange girls appearance has certainly wrought a change upon our little group.' he mused softly to himself.

"...hot... " The soft whimper caught both Kagome's and Miroku's attention. Looking down at her lap to where Shippou had gone to sleep Kagome carefully brushed some of his hair away from his eyes. Out of all of them Shippou seemed to be taking the vampire's sudden reappearance the worst, often since he had fallen asleep dreaming of the morning when Nathania had burst into flames.

"Ssshhh." she soothed gently waking the little kitsune up and breaking the nightmares hold over him. 'Now if only I could wake Nathania so easily.' she thought, smiling slightly as Shippou cutely rubbed at his eyes blearily then settled back down to watch the gaijin for signs of movement.

Behind them the campfire flared and then died down into glowing coals, briefly illuminating Inu Yasha as he stood there, arms crossed and head bent slightly downwards. Speaking slowly he voiced some of the thoughts that had been plaguing him.

"When that wench first turned up the Tetsusaiga didn't work, and she damn well knew it too, but this time when she appeared it did transform. Why the hell is that? Plus she's now got Sesshoumaru's fuckin' stench not just on her body but inside it as well. Where the hell has she been?" Looking up he stared directly at Kagome, causing her to look away, unsure how to answer any of the questions he had posed, but scared that she might actually have the answer to at least one of them.

"Inu Yasha?" She asked quietly, her voice trembling slightly.

"Hmm?" The half demon looked over to where Kagome sat her face turned away from him and for a second concern for her flashed over his face, only to be replaced with his usual mask of arrogant indifference. "What?" He asked, arms still folded across his chest.

"I think... maybe... well, Nathania's not a youkai is she... not technically I guess... and she said that she was once a human... that she 'became' a vampire. Maybe the human part of her isn't all dead... maybe that's why the Tetsusaiga didn't work." Kagome stopped, seeing the look on Inu Yasha's face and swallowed.

"But if that's the case Kagome-sama, then why did it transform this time." Miroku to the side of her mused, beginning to put the pieces of information he had overheard together.

Kagome sighed. "I don't know." It seemed lately, that where Nathania was concerned she only ever had part of the answer, if it was an answer at all. All she knew about vampires had come from television and teen-thriller novels, and she had no way of discerning fact from fiction. But looking over the little group she had to admit she knew more then anyone else, except of course Nathania, and the gaijin, although forthcoming at the beginning of her story, had ended it rather abruptly just before she explained anything about the actual act of becoming a vampire leaving it up to Kagome's imagination.

"Didn't 'zactly expect you to." Nathania croaked, startling everybody out of their deep thoughts as she slowly sat up, squinting slightly and rubbing her temples with her fingers. "Yuck. I feel sick."

Kagome gingerly put her hand around Nathania's back to support the vampire as she swayed slightly and almost fell back down onto the ground.

"Careful Nathania-san." Miroku warned her, adding his strength to Kagome's in trying to keep the girl upright. "You would not want to over exert yourself so soon after collapsing as you did."

Nathania closed her eyes and groaned weakly, leaning back gratefully against the two arms that supported her, her own strength still not fully returned to her. Feeling something tugging at her arm she looked down to see Shippou holding onto her hand as if he was afraid she'd burn or fade or fly away and offered him her special 'no teeth' smile. Shippou smiled back tremulously but his grip on her hand didn't loosen very much. Looking up to Kagome she nodded, hoping that it would convey her thanks for her help and then turned her head to Miroku smiling her thanks to him as well, then frowned as she realised she had no idea who she was smiling at, who was smiling back at her... who's hand was slowly edging around her ribcage towards her...

"If you're a pervert I'll bite you." She tried to growl but couldn't, her throat feeling strangely rough, as though it had been burnt with acid.

Miroku grinned sickly and drew his hand back to its' former position of helpfulness. He didn't know much about western 'vampires', only what he'd been able to pick up from Kagome and Inuyasha's conversation, and he wasn't about to put his lack of knowledge to the test by unnecessarily provoking one, but he could work on knocking her defences down with his polite charm later. Seeing her still favouring him with an angry gaze he quietly drew in a deep breath and thought. 'Much later.'

"My name is Miroku, Nathania-san. I am a Buddhist priest and am accompanying Kagome-sama and Inuyasha upon their quest."

"Feh." Nathania turned her head slightly to look past Miroku and saw Inuyasha glaring at the houshi.

"I take it you're not pleased with this turn of events Nasty-san?" She asked him.

Miroku blinked slightly. "Nasty-san?" he mouthed to Kagome, getting a shrug in response, while down on the ground Shippou giggled. 'Hmm... just have to file that one away for later use.' he thought to himself measuring Inuyasha's response by way of just when he should use it.

Inuyasha growled low in his throat as he stomped over from the dying embers of the fire to sit in front of Nathania and death glare her, eliciting a smirk from the gaijin. Seeing this he growled again. "What the fuck's so funny?"

Nathania's little smirk became a bigger smirk. "Just happy that someone around here can still growl properly. Thanks for cheering me up Nasty-san!"

Kagome drew in a breath as she saw Inuyasha tense up. "We were just wondering where you've been for the past week or so Nathania." she said suddenly, trying to distract Inuyasha from his usual 'Nathania's-around' bad mood.

"Really?" Nathania's eyes went large and sparkly.

"Uh-huh." Kagome nodded.

"Wow... I thought you were talking about some fang thingie transforming and me still being part human... my Japanese must be really deteriorating if I get things that badly mangled." she giggled.

Kagome concentrated on not letting the surprise show on her face. 'Just how long was Nathania awake and listening in on our conversation?' she thought in confusion. She had been so sure that the vampire had been asleep for the whole time.

Suddenly Nathania drew in a ragged breath as pure pain slammed into her body like shrapnel from an explosion, causing her to pitch forward almost hitting the ground but Inuyasha caught her and pushed her back by her shoulders so that she was sitting properly again. She almost laughed. Had she seen a flash of concern on Nasty-san's face? Now that would be funny. Good grief, he was even helping Kagome and Miroku steady her. Inside her head a myriad of darkened colours were swarming in a surprising manner, tangling and writhing, pulsing through her brain, her very body, and with every pulse a staggering spike of agony drove through her veins until she felt that she was on the verge of screaming. Gathering herself together she pushed away from Inuyasha and the others, biting down on her tongue as another pulse swept through her.

Shippou yelped and jumped back onto Kagome's shoulder as Nathania tore her hand away from his grasp. "Kagome, what's happening to Nathania?" he asked, worry seeping into his voice.

She couldn't reply because she was asking herself that exact same question and drawing a blank.

The pulses were weaving together, drawing sustenance off of each breath Nathania took and reaching further through her body with their coloured claws. Panting harshly she tried to force the pain away, mentally willing it to seep out of her pores and blow away on the cold night breeze. Standing up she staggered back from the group and squeezed her eyes shut. Her entire body felt strange. If she hadn't been on fire before and known what it actually felt like she would have said that she was burning up, or that her insides where on fire. But this pain was different, it clawed and teared through her veins like a rabid dog... or a dog demon.

Something inside her mind clicked with that thought.

Prying open her eyes looked closely at Inuyasha noting the similarities and the differences between him and the other white haired demon she had faced and killed. The white hair, the claws, the eyes... maybe something about the face... if her memory served her correctly... and the way that it was blurred she couldn't be sure that it was... the two demons could almost have been brothers. 'Ooh... hope not or Nasty-san's going to kill me.' her thoughts slurred. 'But you were right Colvin, youkai blood would have destroyed me as a fledgling.' A coloured claw of pain distracted her from her wandering thoughts as it brushed against her heart, then, as if it had found what it had been searching for, drew back and struck at the blood sack, piercing it through to it's core.

Every cell inside her screamed making up for the shout of pain she refused to let past her lips, and then she felt something warm and thick rush up her throat. Dropping to her hands and knees she tried to choke the fluid back but failed. Opening her mouth she vomited blood everywhere.

"AAHHHH!!!" Shrieked Kagome, dancing back away from the crimson tide that fountained from between Nathania's lips.

Holding on tightly to her shoulder Shippou squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to look at what was happening and half wished that he could release his grip on Kagome so that he could block his ears to the sounds of the gaijin violently emptying her stomach.

Inuyasha wrinkled his nose, bringing his sleeve up to cover it and hopefully block out most of the stench of the blood Nathania had vomited up and carefully positioned himself in front of Kagome. 'Nothing about this vampire smells right...' he thought. '... and that blood she's spewed doesn't smell right either. Too much of it smells old and dead... and human' picking up a slight rustle of movement from behind him he checked over his shoulder to see the houshi relaxing his grip on his staff.

"Baka! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he snarled as Miroku picked his way past him towards where Nathania lay, apparently passed out on the red soaked earth.

"I'm going to help her."

Behind him Kagome swallowed hard then tried to step around the half demon so that she could help too but she found herself being stopped by Inuyasha's hand.

"Inuyasha! What's your problem? Nathania's in a really bad way, we've got to help her!" She fumed staring up at him. What she saw on his face surprised her. 'Is that concern I see? Could it possibly be that Inuyasha is worried about us?'

"Just don't go near her yet." Inuyasha was incredibly worried with dozens of unanswered questions raging through his head. 'Is she still unconscious or only faking like before? What just happened to her? Does her having Sesshoumaru's stench all over her have anything to do with it? If I have to protect Kagome and the others will the Tetsusaiga work?' Inu Yasha shook his head and growled. He could puzzle it all out later when he had time, right now he didn't and he didn't like the way that vampire smelled.

"Miroku!! Get away from her! NOW!!" Inuyasha yelled, turning towards the houshi his hand going to the Tetsusaiga's hilt.

Miroku looked up from where he had gently moved the still unconscious Nathania onto her side and out of the red vomit she had fallen in and frowned in confusion. "What?"

"The blood she spewed up was old and human but she's still got Sesshoumaru's stink cursing through her!!"

Miroku frowned harder but reluctantly started to move away from where the vampire lay.

Stepping backward slowly he looked down into the face of the gaijin and noted with some surprise that her golden eyes were open. 'Golden? Weren't they ice-blue before?' he puzzled, then things started to click into place. "Shit." he muttered to himself, quickening his backward pace so that he could put some fighting distance between himself and the vampire.

"Miroku! What's going on?!" Kagome yelled in concern over Inu Yasha's shoulder.

Nathania moved fast, faster then any of the small group expected, especially Miroku.

"Wha- URK!!" He started to say, but his question was painfully cut short by Nathania as she sunk her fangs deep into Miroku's neck.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Mr Nakamura huddled in the corner of the mini-shrine, his back pressing hard into the wooden walls, watching the proceedings with terror in his eyes. 'I'm just a bloody innocent bystander... things like this don't happen to me...' he half whimpered into his large, hairy hands, trying to stifle the sounds issuing from his throat. Why these monsters had singled him out was beyond him. Ever since that first damn night they had turned up and tortured him about somebody called 'Nathania' they'd kept him close. Close enough to hit, close enough to hurt, close enough to kill if he didn't tell them about Nathania. How the hell was he supposed to know the chick? He'd bloody well told them that too, over and over again he'd said that he didn't know nobody by the name of Nathania. He'd told them as calmly as he could when they'd bullied their way into his house and threatened him with sharp wooden stakes. He's yelled it at them as the had held him down with inhuman might and carved long swirling patterns into his chest with knives. He'd screamed it as they had peeled the skin off of one of his arms exposing the muscle underneath to air. He'd pleaded for them to believe him as they'd pressed spikes ever so slowly through the bottom of his feet. But they didn't listen, or they didn't care to interrupt their fun for the truth.

'I told them... I told them... I TOLD THEM!!' his mind sobbed frantically, trying to make sense of this sudden horror that had become his life. The pain that never quite stopped. Even now his arm throbbed where they had replace the peeled skin like a long leather glove and he doubted he could hobble more then a few steps. When had he last seen the sun? How long had he been their captive? A day? A week? A month? The hours and minutes had all merged into one long line of fear long ago. When would they want to know about Nathania again? Shudders of despair passed through his body violently at the thought and a wet stain spread across the front of his trousers as his bowels proved too weak, again. Oh god, he couldn't go through anymore... he couldn't...

"I don't want to die... I don't want to bloody die... " he cried, tears streaming down his blood encrusted face.

"It'll be alright." a quiet voice confided in him. Mr Nakamura swallowed and looked over his shoulder to see the young boy that had so innocently skipped into the grasp of the group and saw the fire of hope burning in his eyes. Lying next to the boy on the floor was his mother, an ugly bruise darkening on her temple from where she had hit the old well that sat in the centre of the shrine that had become their prison. His thoughts danced in a manic way from his fears to wonder if the woman was suffering from concussion. She had yet to wake up and her face seemed pale and bloodless in the little light that dared to creep inside the shrine through the window. He started to giggle through his tears. 'Bloody hell. I don't even know what bloody concussion is 'cept you get it when you hit your head.'

"Sir?" the boy asked with a tremble in his voice.

Mr Nakamura looked over to him to see that he had snuggled further in with his unconscious mother and was eyeing him strangely.

'Geez, I've frightened the tyke. He's not bloody scared of those six monster but I can scare him.' He thought in wonder. Not that he could blame him. Seeing a grown man laugh and cry at the same time couldn't be very comforting. "How come you think it's gonna be alright kid?"

Sota hunched down and took a secretive look around trying not to be too obvious about making sure the girls where all out of earshot in such a way that it was immediately noticeable. "Cause my sister's got a friend who could beat all these girls with just his little finger." He confided in a stage whisper, the light of hero worship glowing in his eyes. All around the room the ears of the six girls seemed to grow as they nonchalantly ignored the conversing two.

"So how's that gonna help us kid? Do they bloody know where you are?"

Sota grinned. "They don't have to." he said softly, his eyes quickly looking over to the old well that featured in the middle of the mini-shrine. "So you don't have to worry cause it's going to be alright."

Mr Nakamura shook his head, his slowly drying tears flying from his cheeks to splatter on the floor. The boy had almost taken him in there, with his little bit of hope. But if he thought some guy was just going to miraculously appear and save them it was a false hope. "No it won't be all right kid. We're all gonna bloody die." the end of his sentence came out in a strangled hush as he caught sight of one of the two Japanese girls of the group, the one who had taken his blood in her hands after she had carved up his chest with her knife and ran it through her hair, turn in his direction with an unholy gleam in her eyes. She started to walk towards the shivering shell of a man slowly, her hand flicking down to grasp the hilt of her knife, but stopped as another one of the group, a gaijin, spoke up.

"Oh just shut the 'bloody' hell up." the dark haired girl dressed in black leather and velvet groaned, tapping the end of a riding crop agitatedly against the side of the old well that she was leaning against. A heartbeat or two later she yawned loudly. "Arg, this waiting shits me... how do we know that Colvins' information was right? She could be in another country by now. YOW!!" She yelled as a blonde slapped her across the face. "Shit Dynn, what's your fucking problem?" she growled, rubbing her cheek where the girl's hand, Dynn's hand, had connected leaving a slight bruising behind.

A wraith thin brunette sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the stairs grinned at her companions discomfort then went back to carving her name into the last step. She knew how Dynn's leadership worked. If you weren't carrying out an order you were staying quiet and out of her way, and so far it had worked. 'Now if only Mel can get that through her head... ' she thought softly as she etched the last letter of her name into the wood and smiled at her small triumph over Dynn's iron leadership.

Back over at the wall Mr Nakamura shivered at how close he had come to more pain and prayed that the softly arguing blonde and Goth would keep the others attention away from their small group of captives for a long while. "We're going to need a bloody guardian angel to get out of this kid." He whispered out of the corner of his mouth towards Sota.

The boy shook his head slightly and whispered back. "No we don't. We need a demon."

To Be Continued...

Notes from Hoowee:
Mwa ha ha... the plot thickens... though into what I'm just not quite sure. Who's Colvin? Why's Nathania chowing down on Miroku? What's going to happen to Sota and co.? *Hoowee scratches head* Hmm... must think harder.

Quote: Someone had to be the first to break. - "I Don't Know You Anymore" Savage Garden.