A/N: ErmHi. *hides behind Adrian* Pleasedon't kill me. Maim me, do whatever, as long as you don't hurt my hands or my brain.

I'm so sorry I haven't updated. Chalk it up to lack of inspiration and laziness. But here's a new chapter! And, unlike last time, I actually have an idea for the next chap, so it should be out sooner. Love you all!! And thank you Nika, for constantly pestering me. You have been my main support throughout this and I dedicate this chapter to you.

On with the show!!!

Previously, On A Shot In The Dark: "I can not only do that, but I can give you a new identity, and security from the authorities. However, you must never come within fifty miles of Kagome. You cannot misuse you immunity either. If you do, I assure you, I will be the first to know about it. And I will come after you." Her voice was filled with promise of a very painful death for Naraku, should he made her angry.

Of course, Nika no longer killed, but Naraku didn't need to know that, now, did her?

"I agree."

Nika sat back to listen.

A Shot In The Dark

Chapter Six

Shards

Kagome stared up at the sky, the stars glittering brightly against dark navy. Every once in a while instinct made her move her arms to keep up, but she had let her brain go. She had no distinct thoughts, the few she did have brief and fleeting. All that mattered was her, the water, and the sky.

She didn't want to think, she didn't want to remember. She wanted to be as innocent as a newborn, as happy as a small child.

She grinned widely up at the sky, giggling rather loudly. She could hear her breath, steady and slow. There was just something so utterly comforting about floating in water. She closed her eyes lazily, and just felt the water around her.

Kagome's brain barely registered a small splash, like someone had gotten into the pool . But, as she was paying no attention whatsoever to her brain, she discounted it as perhaps her hand or foot surfacing or something.

The raven haired girl smiled and opened her eyes slowly, before screaming, and sinking into the pool. She surfaced a moment later, spluttering and pushing the hair out of her face, glaring at the person who had caused her sudden return to reality. It wasn't every day you opened your eyes and saw a certain gold eyed someone staring holes into your head.

"Inuyasha! What the hell was that?! You trying to give me a heart attack?!?!"

Inuyasha cocked his head to the side and surveyed his girlfriend. From that angle, she kinda looked like a drowned ratInuyasha snickered at that thought.

"No, no heart attacks involved, just watching you. You're beautiful when you're calm."

Kagome glared. "Attaching a compliment does not mean I am going to let this go." Inuyasha tried, he really did, but he couldn't help it. The expression on her face when she had opened her eyes, along with the whole aforementioned drowned rat thing, was too funny. He burst out laughing, holding his stomach, tears springing from his eyes.

He didn't expect her to jump him. Which is exactly what Kagome did. She tackled him, hooking one arm around his neck and pushing him under water. That spurred an all out water fight, complete with splashing, dunking and cannonballing.

At the same time that Kagome and Inuyasha were trying to drown each other, Nika was in an old warehouse, interrogating a rat youkai. He was currently not yielding any information. That, more that anything was what convinced her that he was working for Kuroko. She let out a sigh. This one wasn't going to be intimidated into talking.

Nika closed her eyes and let her old self emerge. When her eyes opened again, they were a pure red.

Nika advanced slowly on the lesser youkai with a predatory stalk, not taking her eyes off him. She had vowed never to kill again, but that didn't mean she couldn't doother things. Nika grinned maliciously, her elongated fangs poking over her lips. She was in for some fun.

Kagome and Inuyasha had stayed in the pool almost all night, their energy slowing down after a few hours. They had relaxed, staring up at the sky and occasionally at each other. At around four in the morning, Inuyasha turned to her.

"Hi." he said softly.

"Hi." Her return was just as soft. Her eyes focused on his lips and she leaned in.

It started off as a sweet, romantic kiss was quickly becoming a passionate, needy kiss. Before long, Inuyasha was leaning against the side of the pool, Kagome's legs wrapped around his waist. Her hands roamed over his chest and his neck, one coming to rest on the back of his head, fingers tangled in his hair.

I'd tell you what happened next, but, well, it just wouldn't be polite.

Black and silver eyes glowed in the darkness. This was not good. That girlshe had seen everything. Her agent had failed, been seen twice. She would have to take care of him.

Kuroko curled her lip in disgust. That damned girl had set the police on her track. She wasn't afraid of the police, oh no. But there was one who she called a worthy opponent.

Kuroko made a strange noise, halfway between a crow and a growl. That girl would die. Her plans would not be exposed. It was too early, too early.

Nika came home late to her family. Nothing out of place there. But something wasdifferent. Sesshoumaru could sense it. He sniffed his mate carefully, but could find no difference in her scent.

Nika greeted her children happily, hugging Rin and Aoshi, Mariko hugging her leg. Nika cooed at Sakura, content in her father's arms, grinning at her mother with a toothless mouth. Nika kissed her mate lightly, then shed her jacket.

"C'mon lovies, time for bed."

"Aww, mom!" came a chorus of little voices. Nika laughed.

"Look, it's way past your bedtime. Go on, brush your teeth and get ready, and Momma will read a story to you, okay?" The three little ones cheered and raced each other upstairs.

Nika took Sakura from Sesshoumaru's arms, smiling at him while she did so, and went to put her down. Sesshoumaru went into the kitchen to put away the dinner dishes. A few minutes later, Nika came back down, blessing the gods that Sakura was such an easy child.

Sesshoumaru smiled at Nika as she put her arms around him, relaxing into his embrace.

"Hard day at work?"

Nika nodded. "Evil. Literally. Bringing back some memories." Nika held him tighter, burying her face in his neck. Sesshoumaru rubbed her back soothingly.

"Bad ones?"

Nika nodded. "I'm okay, though. Just want to be here with you though." Nika lifted her head and gave her mate a slow, deep kiss.

Suddenly, a chorus of "Ew's" interrupted the moment. Nika and Sesshoumaru looked up. Rin, Aoshi and Mariko stood in the doorway, all looking equally grossed out.

Nika laughed, with Sesshoumaru chuckling behind her.

"Can we have our story now?" Nika smiled.

"Alright, alright! What do you want to have me read?" Nika looked over her shoulder at her mate, smiling softly while her children dragged her off, chattering away.

Sesshoumaru thought back over what she had said. That would explain why he was sensingwhatever it was. Sesshoumaru dismissed the feeling, tucking it away in the back of his mind.

Sei settled herself on the roof of the building across from the dojo in which the girl was currently working out. She found herself glad that Kuroko had not told her to fight with the girl. It was obvious she knew what she was doing. She set up her rifle and lowered her face to aim.

Just as she was about to cock the gun, a new person came in. The girl's boyfriend. She watched as they talked. When they seemed to wind down and the boy was about to leave, Sei cocked the gun and aimed. Bad move. The boy tensed. Sei shot just as he pulled the girl down to the floor with him. The bullet passed harmlessly through the window. Sei cursed and rolled out of sight, dismantling her gun. She put it away and got the hell out of there. She would just have to kill the girl another day.

Inuyasha slowly stood up, lifting his hand off her back.

"Holy fucking shit!"

Inuyasha made a point not to ask if she was okay.

"What the fucking hell?!"

"Kag, could you calm down?"

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?!? I was nearly killed!! If you hadn't been thereoh God! I'd be dead!" Inuyasha winced. He was trying not to think of that. His breath was coming in short pants, and he was very aware of the fact that death had just brushed him. If he hadn't heard that click

Suddenly, he was aware of Kagome squeezing the breath out of him.

"Kagome?"

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou"

Inuyasha looked down at her, putting his arms around Kagome and hugging her nearly as hard as she was hugging him.

"I love you, you know that?"

Her comment taking him by surprise, Inuyasha nodded. Before he had a chance to say anything back, she was kissing him in a thank-god-we're-alive way. But it quickly changed into a I-almost-died-and-now-I-want-you kiss. It would be the second time in a day, not that Inuyasha was complaining or anything.

Kagome put that incident in her Five Most Erotic Moments list, second place. She did find it a little strange that one of her most erotic moments happened right after she was nearly killed, but hey. It made her realize just how much she loved Inuyasha.

The first thing they did after taking long showers, was tell their friends what had happened. Inuyasha had gone to the dojo to ask Kagome if she wanted to come to dinner. He and Miroku were cooking. She had said yes, and he was about to leave when he heard a click. He recognized it as a gun and pulled Kagome to the ground. A second later, the glass ahead and behind them shattered.

It was a little suprising no one came around to see what had happened. The gun had a silencer, but glass breaking isn't very silent. Kagome supposed that everyone was just to busy and passed it off as an accident or something.

The next thing the two did was go to the police station to report it. They demanded to see Nika, and told her everything.

"They're going to be after from now on."

"What?"

"You've set us on their trail. You saw the youkai outside your window. They want you dead."

Kagome's eyes had gotten very wide. As tough as she was, she really didn't like the idea of a crime syndicate after her.

Nika must have seen the fear in Kagome's eyes.

"They'll be teams of undercover agents at your school at all times. I'll assign one to follow you, and make sure that some of them are youkai. If this happens again, we'll be ready."

Kagome nodded, looking a bit more relaxed.

"In the mean time, we should probably give you some training. You have traces of miko power in your blood. With some lessons, you might be able to sense youki and where it's coming from.

"I hate to put you through this, Kagome. But we want you safe, and they want you dead. They are afraid of you. Remember that."

"They're afraid of me?" Somehow that was little hard to believe.

"Yes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be trying to kill you. You have information on them, you set us on their trail, as I said before."

Kagome nodded, taking a deep breath. "Righty then. Should I just go home now? I kinda want to call my mother." Nika nodded.

"Yes, that's all for now. You are dismissed."

Kagome stood and left Nika's office. Inuyasha sat in the waiting room for her, deep in thought. As soon as Kagome came back from meeting with Nika, he jumped up.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Kagome! What did she say?"

Kagome grinned a bit at her boyfriend. "She's putting surveillance teams at school, and there will be one following me pretty much everywhere. Undercover, of course. All OO7 like. She also wants me to get some miko training, as she said she senses some power in me."

"Yeah, I noticed it too. It flares when you get mad." In fact, it flared so powerfully that he had noticed some of the lesser youkai in the dorms cringe a bit when they were fighting in public. His girl was a powerful one, alright.

"Really? That's interesting." Kagome looked thoughtful. "I guess I'll take those lessons, then. Hey! Maybe they can give me firearms training too!" Kagome looked too excited for her own good. Inuyasha decided then and there that guns and Kagome equaled not good.

Kagome, for all her powers of observance, could not spot the policemen who were watching her. Inuyasha took to pointing them out to her after she slugged him for chuckling.

She started taking lessons from an old woman on her miko powers, which were not nearly as fun as she thought they might be. She wanted to know how to sense youki, not be able to cure a cough with an herb, for Kami's sake! But she was able to wheedle one of the detectives, Watanabe-san, into giving her lessons on how to aim and shoot a gun.

A couple of weeks into her lessons Kagome could sense youki around her, and Inuyasha no long had to point out the agents to her. Well, at least not the youkai ones.

Kagome was with Sango when it happened, walking to the nearby Starbucks for a quick latte and danish before class. It was a freezing Wednesday morning, as mornings tend to be in December. They had almost reached the door when Kagome stiffened. Sango looked at her friend in alarm.

"What's wrong?"

"I sense youki. Dammit. Where is that team when I need them?!" Kagome was looking around with both her eyes and her miko powers, reaching out, trying to pinpoint where the youki was coming from without acting to abnormally. She continued walking, but slowed down.

A man passed them. Kagome let out a tiny gasp and then hit herself in the forehead.

"What?"

"It was that man I was sensing. He must be some sort of youkai. Thank Kami. Had me a little freaked."

Sango breathed out. "Can we get our coffee now? Without any more freaky youki sensing?"

"Please."

As the girls started walking again, Sei sighed in relief. She had almost had her cover blown. She aimed carefully and put her finger on the trigger.

Kagome felt another twitch at the edge of her brain. It's just another harmless civilian youkai, Kagome. Calm down. She reassured herself. Yet, when something told her to duck, she did without thinking.

Sei shot and cursed. She missed! She shot again, mindless of the chaos that was erupting around the coffee shop. She felt something pierce her neck at the exact second she fired the second time.

Two echoing screams filled the air.

A/N: *cackles* Hee hee hee!!! Cliffhanger! Not one of you can guess what happens next! Hah! *dodges various sharp objects* Hey!