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Darkest Before the Dawn part 2

Chap 7 mind games
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The light switch clicked dully and the room remained as dark as night. The storm must have knocked all the electricity out for miles around, leaving the house dark but, surprisingly, still warm. The heavy med-kit hung dully from one shoulder as she made her way back to Inuyasha.

Said hanyou groaned as she sat back next to his still form, resting a hand on his forehead. His skin was cold and damp; a slight shiver ran through him even under the thick quilt she had managed to find. It was hard to see the awful extent of his injuries in the darkness-part of her didn't want to see what had happened the two weeks she had been gone, but she knew it had to be done.

As she carefully pulled the soaking pelt off, trying not to hurt him any more then he already was, a few whimpers broke the eerie silence as she lowered him back down. She hesitated, biting her lip lightly as her hand hovered above his torn soaked pants. He was hurt, she had to get them off of him. Taking a deep breath she started to untie them, feeling the young hanyou tense under her shaking fingers. I'm so sorry Inuyasha. He whimpered and stirred as the edges of his pants were slid down his hips.

A light blush crept across her skin even in the dark

" Pleasses.…sstop…." the faint words left his cracked dry lips as he stirred in his exhausted sleep, his unbroken hand clenched into a fist, tearing the sheet.

He stiffened slightly before going limp again.

Kagome felt her stomach lurch and her heart slam painfully into her ribs. Her shaking hands pulled the quilt back up around his hips. A lingering dread turned to sickness.

She wiped the growing tears from her eyes, only if she hadn't left. This might not had happened.

A soft groan brought her our of her self-imposed guilt. She reached up and stroked his cold cheek with a shaking hand. Who could do such a thing to him? He had suffered enough at it was, he didn't need this.

" My beautiful Inuyasha…"

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His skin was a mess of deep wounds, some were old, but most were fresh and bleeding. He squirmed and groaned softly when she brushed over them.

Kagome felt sick. Her hands were shaking slightly, fighting to keep from breaking down. The soft cloth was almost falling out of her hands as she carefully cleaned of the matt of dried and fresh blood from his skin.

She winced every time air entered or left his chest, gently mopping his cold skin with the cloth as it turned a scarlet red, and he would cry out softly, calling her name to the uncaring darkness that surrounded them both.

"Inuyasha, can you hear me? I have to wrap your chest…. and it might hurt." One ear barely moved to catch her words.

His eyes fluttered open, his golden orbs flickering slightly, clouded in silent agony before falling shut again. Gritting his teeth and summing the fast failing reserves of strength he nodded slightly as a shiver shook his body slightly.

Reaching blindly in the dark for the medical kit she had retrieved earlier, she thanked the supernatural entity high above for its presence, all the while feeling for the bulky roll of bandages inside. With the greatest care she could manage, she reached under him and slowly wrapped his broken ribs in a thick elastic bandage. Her wince surfaced quite often; it did each time she brushed over his chest and felt the painfully visible ribs below his badly torn hide, a silent testimony for whatever hell he had gone through. His jaw clenched every time her hand moved against a wound in the dark.

It was difficult to squeeze her hand beneath him to get the bandage around his chest, feeling him jerk slightly every time. He shook slightly with unvoiced pain and cold; he was barely clinging on the fine silvery edge of life with a fierce tenacity as she pulled it tight.

He lay deathly still, only the faint rise and fall of his chest was any sign of life. That and the constant but slight shivering.

I've got to find a way to get his temperature rising again. With the power out, it's going to be far harder to get him warmed up.

"Hang on, Inuyasha. " He gave no indication he heard her soft words, his ears laying flat against his skull. His body racked with each trailing cough, the thin trickle of crimson that fled from his bruised lips was the only thing she could grasp that ensured her that he, at least, would have a few minutes longer.

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Inuyasha groaned, his free unbroken hand griped the sheet below his body in a tight embrace as the dark rift of pain opened up and swallowed him whole, dragging him screaming into its depths.

Tears fell from his eyes as the whimpers caught in his throat, his body going stiff as sweat dotted his skin despite the cold.

Inuyasha's choked whimpers of pain faded away to the sound of his own thundering heart slamming into his broken ribs as he lay struggling for breath through the thick, coppery crimson that threatened to drown him.

He stirred slightly as something warm was pressed to his heaving chest, drawing away the throbbing pain and cold.

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The rubbery skin of the hot water bottle pressed itself into her hands, molding to her flesh like a living creature as she all but walked back to him. It was all she could find; at least it was something.

Kagome dropped to his side, pressing the heated rubber to his chest under the heavy quilt, smoothing the sweat soaked silver hair out of his face. Even in the shadows she could easily see how his jaw was clenched tightly, his face twisted into pain.

"Shhh…I'm here, Inuyasha." She tried to soothe his furious attempt to retain a fragile grip on consciousness.

"K-Kagome?" he whispered harshly, his voice weak and shaky. His once vibrant golden eyes were clouded and glazed over.

"Just rest. You'll be all right," she said, trying her best not to let her voice break up.

"I….I'm cold," was all he could mange through his chill-paralyzed and bloody throat.

"I know. Don't talk, save your strength." She reached out and gently stroked his anguished face, watching as he relaxed visibly. He was still shivering under her hand.

His eyes clouded over with pain as they slide shut, a meek cry escaping his lips but then nothing, as he went slack.

Her own breath caught and her heart felt as if it was wrenched from her chest. She clutched the half breeds still form to her own, brushing a hand over his forehead where perspiration was beginning to bead to his lips desperately, and feeling where his breath still stirred in his broken body.

Her strength dispersed and she collapsed on him, letting the tears of anguish fall freely over him, the smell of blood still clinging to him like a remaining, hovering cloud.

"I don't want to loose you, Inuyasha…" she whispered harshly into his ear, feeling his own chest rise slightly under hers, sharing what little warmth she could offer as the long cold night dragged on.
The wind and ice plummeted to the earth below, covering the sleeping world in a fine coat of white.

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TBC