Kagome and Kai were now walking through the nearby park. She had stopped shouting and struggling to free herself, it was just no use. Kai was holding her too tight and her arm was starting to feel a little numb. The only thing that she could accomplish by continuing her attempts to escape would be to hurt herself even more. So, she had decided to wait and see where he would take her and then try to run away.

Although at this time of the day the park usually was full of kids, coming back from school with their parents, Kagome couldn't see anybody. It was like all the people had run away. She started worriedly looking around and a hard tug on her arm brought her back to reality. When she turned to look at Kai, he was smirking at her, then he again looked ahead.

"Such a stupid girl..." he said quietly, amusement in his voice.

"Excuse me?" Kagome spun her head to stare at him angrily. Despite the dangerous situation she was in, she just couldn't ignore an insult like this. "Who are you? What have you done with Kai?" she demanded, well aware that the person that was dragging her through the park wasn't the American boy.

"Oh, he's fine." the boy answered with the same arrogant smirk. "My name is Shamashir. I'm just borrowing his body while he's asleep."

A surprised gasp escaped her lips as she realized who this Shamashir might be. It was unusual for her but she cursed herself for her stupidity – she had the bad feeling that everything was her fault and she just couldn't seem to find a way out of this mess. "H-How?" she asked shakily.

"I think you already know that, my dear." Shamashir laughed.

"The kiss..." Kagome whispered and just now she remembered that, back in Feudal Japan, when she and Kaede were trying to save Inuyasha, the old Miko had warned her to stay away from the hanyou's mouth. "I really am an idiot..."

Suddenly Shamashir stopped and held her in front of him, grabbing her other arm too. She screamed and tried to pull herself away from him, but the hard shake he gave her made her stop and look up at him. He was smirking, again, and that gave her an uneasy feeling. What was he going to do with her? Was he going to kill her?

Instead of doing all the horrible things that Kagome imagined, he just spoke. "That strange flash that seemed to calm you so much was simply my powers, reflected from your eyes in Kai's." he explained, his voice low and somehow threatening. "You see, Kai is one very troubled young man. He was very easy to make connection with."

"That f-flash in his eyes was your c-connection?" Kagome whispered, not trusting her voice to speak louder. "That's why I was so..." her words died in her throat as he leaned toward her.

His face came so close that their lips seemed less than a breath apart from one another. "I must say that it was a lot easier to make you kiss Inuyasha." he said and backed away a little. "After all, you were already very attracted to him." with that he let her left arm go and pulled her again toward the exit of the park.

Inuyasha jumped from tree to tree, trying to make as little noise as possible, and boy was he succeeding! Not a single leaf rustled as he leaped on the branches. He kept cursing everything and everybody – there were just too many people in that park, too many scents, and the place was too unfamiliar to him. In his frustration he was obviously not paying attention that he was slowly loosing his transformation and was turning human.

Suddenly he saw them. They had stopped in the middle of the alley and seemed to be talking. The other people still couldn't see them but that didn't matter to him right now. Inuyasha prepared to leap at them, not caring that he might and most definitely would be seen, but then something happened. Kagome and the boy disappeared and in his surprise the hanyou fell off of the tree.

As he was getting up, Inuyasha noticed that he was human again and that was probably why he couldn't see them anymore. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he repeated, oblivious to the curious looks the people on the alley were giving him. "I decided to stay calm, damn it!" he reminded himself angrily and as he concentrated he felt his powers come back. Before the people could see how he looked as a hanyou, he was up in trees again.

He saw Kagome and the boy just when Shamashir pulled away from her and started dragging her after him. Then they disappeared again. This time Inuyasha was careful not to get angry, well not too much angry, and followed their scents. He could easily catch up with them now but he didn't have even the slightest idea of how to actually get them – he couldn't see them, he couldn't touch them. The only thing he could do now was to follow them and wait for a good opportunity to attack.

'Where is he taking her?' the hanyou wondered and made a mental note to make Kagome show him around the city, just in case if she gets kidnapped again. 'That stupid girl will never learn to stay out of...' his train of thought was interrupted as he slipped and almost fell, while jumping to another tree branch. 'Stay focused...' he reminded himself.

Soon enough he reached the exit of the park and sniffed the air to see where Kagome and the boy had gone. They had turned right and he followed them. Luckily for him there weren't any people around and he could freely walk on the pavement. The way he was heading was getting kind of deserted and he started to worry. There were large buildings that he had heard from Souta were hangars, and large yellow machines – if he remembered right they were called cranes.

As he was looking around he suddenly lost Kagome's scent. He quickly checked if he was again human but he wasn't – his claws were there, his fangs and ears too, his hair was white. Panic started to rise in him and this time he didn't care if he would loose the transformation. He would even prefer to face that who-knows-what-demon in human form than loose Kagome. Deciding that he mustn't give up, he started checking the closest hangars to where he had last smelled her.

"Very interesting..." Shamashir said and pushed Kagome in one of the hangars.

She fell on the ground and tried to stand up and run away, while he was closing the door, but he caught her and pushed her down again. "Let me go you..." she started but was cut short when he turned to look at her. It was such a cold and threatening look that she hadn't seen even from Sesshoumaru, and it left her stunned.

"It seems that Inuyasha has been following us." he said calmly and closed the door.

Hearing his name, Kagome's eyes widened and she felt a sudden rush of courage. Not caring what Shamashir would do, she cried the hanyou's name and ran toward the door. Obviously the demon was expecting her to try to escape and was immediately on her way, catching her around the waist and pushing her back. This time she didn't fell and he laughed when she made another attempt to escape.

"Let me go! Inuyasha!" the girl shouted and struggled to get free from Shamashir's hands. "Don't touch me, you ugly, disgusting... Inuyasha!"

"He can't hear you." the demon said, satisfied when she stared at him wide-eyed in fear. "Nobody can..." but then she started shouting all over again, and when he covered her mouth she bit his hand. "Bitch!" he hissed and slapped her in the face with the back of his other hand.

Kagome screamed and fell on the ground, unconscious. Her cheek, where Shamashir had hit her, immediately reddened and a small trickle of blood appeared from the corner of her mouth. The demon grunted, holding his injured hand and licked the blood away. He then picked her up and took her deeper in the hangar. He placed her on a pile of sacks filled with cement and sat on another pile, across of her.

"Too bad that she has to be awake to suck her energy." the demon said and rested his head on his hands. "There's nothing to worry about, anyway. That hanyou of hers won't find us soon." he assured himself and closed his eyes.

As Inuyasha was checking one of the hangars, he heard a scream. It was defiantly Kagome – he had heard her screams more than enough times to recognize her, and he was immediately out of the hangar. He stood outside and sniffed the air but there was nothing. No matter how he hated to even think about it, Inuyasha wished that she screamed again. If she did that he would be able to say where she was but it would also mean that the damned boy was hurting her.

Unconsciously, Inuyasha started growling. His eyes inspected every centimeter of the perimeter, his ears kept twitching to try to catch any suspicious sound. Nothing, there was noting he could use to find her. Then he caught a faint familiar scent and it sent cold chills down his spine. Although she hadn't been hurt so bad as to bleed often in the past, Inuyasha knew how her blood smelled and now he knew from where the scent was coming.

Without a second thought, he ran toward the hangar where she and Shamashir had entered. Not wasting time to open the door, Inuyasha just crashed through it and landed in a fighting position, his hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt. "Kagome!" he shouted and looked around, ready to jump on everyone who opposed him.

Hearing the loud noise from Inuyasha's entrance, Shamashir's head snapped up. When the hanyou yelled Kagome's name he immediately stood up and silently crept toward the door, hiding behind some construction materials piled up around. He knew that Inuyasha couldn't see him but still remained hidden. 'I have to hold the barrier until the moon rises.' the demon thought and turned to go back to his hostage. 'Then I'll take her energy and kill the bastard that almost destroyed me.'

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled again, walking around in the large building. He had looked everywhere but he just couldn't seem to find her. The scent of her blood was driving him crazy and he was starting to lose control. "Damn you, fucking piece of shit! Show yourself!" he drew Tetsusaiga out and hit a large pile of iron bars. "If you do something to Kagome, I'm gonna gut you alive and feed you with..."

Suddenly there was a faint moan that immediately caught his attention and he spun around toward two piles of sacks, filled with something that smelled pretty heavy and unpleasant. He listened carefully for a moment and stepped closer. 'That was Kagome, I'm sure...' the hanyou thought and gripped his sword harder, ready to slice in two the kidnapper.

As Shamashir was just sitting down, after he had left Inuyasha, he saw Kagome move her head. Before he could go to her and make sure that she stays quiet, she moaned and started to wake up. The demon stopped and turned to look at the hanyou who was intently staring at them. He couldn't see them but he had definitely heard the girl's moan. Not wasting anymore time, Shamashir went to Kagome, with the intention to make sure she doesn't give their position out.

Just as he was reaching to place one hand over her mouth, Kagome's eyes shot open and she tried to back away. "Shashir..." she said, her voice a little raspy. "Get away from me..." then with the corner of her eyes she spotted the hanyou. "Inuyasha!" she found her voice to scream at him. Before she could do more, the demon was by her side and was holding her throat. She choked, trying to take a proper breath and gripped his hand, leaving red marks with her nails.

"Nice try, my dear." he whispered close to her left ear. "Just one thing – my name is Shamashir, not Shashir..." he said and tightened his grip on her throat.

Inuyasha had heard her scream his name and now he was sure that they were somewhere near the pile of sacks in front of him. He tried to concentrate to see them but with no luck. Then she screamed again. Until now he had been angry, better said – enraged, that someone had taken the girl he loved. But as he stood there, helpless, while that someone was hurting her a strange desperation started to rise in him. He felt like he was going to explode, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Kagome!" he shouted, unknowingly running toward her. "Where are you? Please, show yourself!" he stopped and started frantically turning around.

She was suffocating, her vision was getting blurry and her mind was being overwhelmed with strange fogginess. Se could barely recognize the desperate hanyou that was almost a step away from her, but couldn't see her. Shamashir wasn't really paying attention that he was actually about to kill the person from whom he wanted to take the energy to be able to materialize without using a host body, and in fact he was having the fun of his life.

'No...' Kagome thought and as her grip on his hand had loosened she tightened it again. 'I'm not gonna...give up so...easily!' she shouted in her mind and forced all of her remaining strength out of her body. She didn't know how she did that but it worked – her hands started glowing in pink light and with a scream she sent a powerful energy charge at Shamashir.

The demon was thrown back at the wall and crashed so hard that he lost consciousness. Kagome fell on her knees on the ground and started coughing. Inuyasha had seen what she had done and was just staring at her in disbelief. As she calmed down he finally came back to his senses and when she looked at him the rush of emotions overwhelmed him and he lost his hanyou transformation, turning into human. Tetsusaiga transformed back to an old and battered sword and he let it fall on the ground.

"I-Inuyasha?" Kagome looked up at him in question, not understanding what was happening to him.

Without saying a single word he walked toward her and lifted her up. Not waiting her to steady herself on her feet, he crushed her in his, a little too clumsy, but strong and warm embrace. He sighed in her hair and did another thing that surprised her even more – he thanked her for being alive, he literally pleaded with her not to scare him like that anymore. Those unexpected words made her want to melt in his arms and she hugged him back, promising him that she wasn't going to leave him anymore.

TBC