Short chapter, lots of fighting.

I'd like to thank Kat Morning for the setting of my story, which is based on the alternate universe of her inu fanfic "Blood Ties."

Disclaimer: I do not own Miroku, Sesshomeru, or any other Inuyasha characters. They are owned by their author/creator, Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 2: Fighting Alone

By 5 PM, Kura had searched sector L, but she hadn't found any abandoned buildings large enough to hold a pack of vampires. Returning to her apartment for dinner, she found herself staring at the map. There were plenty of victims, but they weren't clustered. Could this be a vampire powerful enough to have taken over six different sectors? Or were the unusual numbers of deaths due to killings by animal-type demons, whose kill patterns tended to be more spread-out?

The Council had dealt with feral youkai before, but that type of demon always left eviscerated bodies in its wake; none had been reported recently. Kura's eyes wandered to the boundary between the Council's territory and the demon lord Sesshomeru's. She remembered when one of the elders had told her the story when she first joined:

You want to live to be as old as me, the man had growled, you don't set foot in the demon lord's territory. Five years ago some rookie like you went in on a dare. He was found in pieces by the police, with a surprised look on his face. Kid never even knew he was hit.

Sesshomeru showed up fourteen years ago and sent the Council this lovely letter stating that any of our members patrolling the area west of sector F would not return alive. The council, of course, sent three Seniors to take him out, but they disappeared.

Then, in the middle of a private council meeting, who should walk in, cool as can be, but the demon lord himself. None of us had heard him come in; the guards were out cold. He'd dissolved the door lock with the acidic venom on his claws. He was in humanoid form with long white hair down to his ankles and these cold yellow eyes. He walks right in, as if he was the one who had called the meeting, and emptied a duffel bag onto the middle of the conference table. And guess what was inside? All three of the Senior demon hunters with their throats ripped out. And this Sesshomeru stands there, cool as a cucumber, and says that he won't bother to return the corpses of any more fools who don't heed his warning. Then he walks to an open window and jumps out . . . from a fifth-floor window. Nobody's seen him since . . . at least nobody who lived long enough to report it.

The Council put a bounty on his head, and over the next decade, seven tried, but none came back. The council gave it up as a lost cause, and nobody's been allowed to patrol the area since.

Kura traced the boundary of Sesshomeru's territory on her map. The demon lord hadn't killed Yumi; if he had, her body would have been in the middle of the street, a warning to all other demon hunters. Turning her attention again to the pins marking vampire victims, she noticed that they formed a loose disc, cut off on one side by Sesshomeru's territory; there were never any suspicious kills in the taiyoukai's territory because he didn't tolerate vampires or other demons. The center of the disk of kills would be sector P, less than a quarter mile from Sesshomeru's territory. Twelve buildings in sector P had been abandoned-- it was an unpleasant part of town. Kura decided to watch each of them for signs of vampire activity. If the pack was truly large enough to have a territory three miles across, then their hideout wouldn't stay secret for very long.

At 2:30, Kura's waiting paid off. She had followed a female for two and a half hours before the vampire led Kura to an abandoned factory building. In front of the door, the female met a second one of her kind. This vampire was clearly the Nosferatu. His skin almost glowed with a sickly light. He wore a cloak that hid the movement of his hands and body. He gave his underling a curt command; the lower vampire bowed and entered the abandoned factory.

Kura charged him while his back was turned, but the undead sorcerer dodged her thrust easily. Grabbing the end of the staff, he jerked her off-balance. She twisted to avoid a punch and landed a kick just above the Nosferatu's knee; his leg gave out and he fell forward with a grunt. She raised the staff, slamming the wooden handle into his chin, and danced out of reach of his flailing arms. She jumped into the air just as the pavement crumbled from the Nosferatu's magic. Using the full length of the staff, she sliced into the back of his neck to sever the spinal cord before her feet touched the ground again.

Several lower vampires, smelling the blood, moved to surround her but stayed well out of range. Why don't they scatter? Kura wondered. They were waiting. Kura felt the pressure wave moments before a fireball blew the factory's door off its hinges. The metal door knocked her to the ground, but also shielded her from the heat. Two vampires who had not been as lucky turned to ash in seconds. When Kura scrambled to her feet, she found herself facing a shapely female Nosferatu whose hands and hair were on fire. I'm impressed, the vampire said in a low, husky voice, you killed old Tilon. I thought he would never die. She flipped the blazing strand of hair out of her eyes with a toss of her head. I'm going to have fun.

Holding her staff out in front of her, Kura began to give ground. Without a better idea of how the monster's powers worked, the demon hunter's best chance lay in having enough room to dodge the blasts.

Within two minutes, the Nosferatu had covered the pavement with scorch marks and incinerated five more vampires. Damn it, bitch, hold still! Kura vaulted over a low shot, then ducked under a high one. She was sweating profusely and the muscles in her calves and thighs were twitching with fatigue. Her throat and eyes stung from the smoke. She couldn't continue this game for much longer, and both opponents knew it. She dodged two more fireballs in close succession and immediately made her move, running towards the Nosferatu in a zigzag pattern.

The vampire was unable to predict Kura's movements; the fireballs exploded harmlessly to the left and right. The demon hunter leapt and used her staff like a long-jumper's pole for even more height. With a yell of triumph, the Nosferatu threw a fireball at pointblank range. Gleaming a the soft blue of its own magic, Kura's blessed weapon sliced through the fireball; the two halves passed on either side and exploded harmlessly behind her. A kick in the sternum sent the vampire staggering back, and the wooden handle of the staff connected with the back of her head hard enough to crush the skull.

Kura took out the three lower vamps who hadn't been incinerated already. It was much harder than it should have been: she was thoroughly winded and she had to strike the dying vampires over and over again before they finally lay still. She went down on one knee for several moments, trying to catch her breath. Where had the second Nosferatu come from? Like lower vampires, Nosferatu were fiercely territorial and competitive. The only way two would coexist in the same area was if they were ruled by a leader they feared more than they hated each other. Kura had heard of vampires that powerful, but none had been seen in Tokyo for a hundred years; the Nosferatu lords, as they were called, were very rare and sometimes considered mere myths.

Kura peered through the door cautiously. She could feel the presence of a demon or vampire, but couldn't find the source. Entering the factory building, Kura didn't see the vampire that dropped down from a hole in the ceiling until it was too late. The vamp made a long vertical slash with her blade, leaving a bloody scratch on Kura's right cheek and a deep cut on the right side of her chest from just below the breast to her hipbone. Fortunately, Kura's ribs deflected the dagger and prevented it from puncturing a lung.

In the close confines of the hallway, the long staff was a liability. Kura dropped it and reached for a throwing knife with her left hand while she broke the vampire's nose with her right elbow. The vampire brought up both hands to her bleeding nose, leaving her body unguarded; her scream was choked off by the throwing knife thrust into her windpipe.

Kura was exhausted and in pain. The wound was not bleeding heavily, but it was a deep cut; it would take time to heal completely. Kura had just turned to leave when she saw movement at the end of the hall. A familiar figure was there for a moment, then gone.