A/N: Here's the next chapter! Hope you guys like it! Please review and let me know! Thanks!

>>>>>>

Dream of Me
Chapter Nineteen

"Kagome, get back! It'll be all right! I'll protect you…" Inuyasha swore. This was, in actuality, the last thing he wanted to be doing…defending Kagome from a demon that had taken the soul of her grandfather.

"But Inuyasha, I…" Kagome gulped. "We can't hurt him…please…" she pleaded.

Sango frowned. "Kagome…we will not be able to avoid it. This is no longer your grandfather…"

"Damn it! Don't you think I know that? How did he get like this?" she screamed, stomping her foot into the ground and surprising everyone. "He could not have been this way long, damn it, and I want some answers…"

But she stopped short. She could see it. There were jewel shards in her grandfather's possession. But how? How did he get them? Kagome gasped in realization. There were no demons in this time. This was no demon. This was her grandfather. Somehow, he had been corrupted. He still looked the same to everyone on the outside, but he was, on the inside, a completely different person. Had he allowed the jewel shards to corrupt him? Had he done this to himself?

Kagome grabbed her bow. "Inuyasha, be careful. That is gramps. He has my jewel shards, I think…or someone gave him some…but they are corrupt."

"I understand." Inuyasha nodded.

Sango and Miroku blinked. How would the old man get jewel shards? Naraku had kidnapped Kagome, had brainwashed her so that she would help him in this quest…and if Naraku had to go to such lengths, what made it so easy for an old man to get hold of the sacred jewel? Something was wrong…

"But I thought…" Miroku stopped short of completing his full sentence, and blinked several times. "Kagome…there's no way." He whispered.

Kagome looked back. "What?"

"Your shards are around your neck, aren't they?" He waited, and Kagome nodded. "Well, then the only other shards there are would be the ones in Kouga's legs, the one sustaining Kohaku's life, and…"

"…the ones that Naraku has…" finished Inuyasha for him.

"And your grandfather has never come in contact with neither Kouga nor Kohaku." Sango reminded Kagome of something obvious.

Inuyasha paled. "Kagome…run." He whispered.

"Run?" Kagome repeated. "Since when have I ran?"

"When I have told you to!" he snapped. "Now run! It's Naraku! It has to be! And you aren't…I mean you can't…just go! I don't want you to be hurt!"

"Come on, Lady Kagome…" Miroku grabbed the girl's arm when she would not listen, and began to run her toward the shrine steps himself. Kagome stopped him, though, when she realized who was standing there waiting for her.

She blinked. "Hojo?" She was floored.

"Well, sort of." Hojo laughed. "You see, in my previous life, I wasn't so…pretty. I think, in fact, that you may have heard of me once or twice before. I used to be a thief…a man by the name of Onigumo…"

"Onigumo?" Kagome repeated, as she felt her knees starting to get weak. "I…My grandfather…he…promised me…to you? And I…I didn't notice before?"

Miroku caught her as her knees finally gave out on her. She took a deep breath.

"What did you do to my grandfather?" she demanded of him.

"He is gone." Hojo smirked.

Inuyasha paled considerably more than before. "Kagome! Get away from him! Don't just sit there! Defend yourself!"

Kagome shook her head several times and took a deep breath. Shrugging Miroku away, she stood up, and backed towards Inuyasha, all the while keeping her eyes on Hojo. Inuyasha eyed Kagome's grandfather suspiciously, but still managed to keep an eye on Kagome as he did so.

"Are you all right, Kagome?" he whispered when she reached him.

She shook her head, hard.

"How's this for a nightmare, Kagome? Except this time, it is all real…and there is nothing you can do about it." Hojo smirked.

Kagome screamed at what happened next.

First, she heard Inuyasha's yelp of pain. She turned around to find that her grandfather had managed to lunge at him. He had attacked with an arrow…probably one of Kagome's own that she usually kept waiting for her in the well house. She barely had time to react when she heard the screams of her mother and brother.

"No!" Kagome yelled.

The next thing she knew, herself, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango were being slung backwards and into the bone eater's well. The four of them fell and were engulfed in the familiar purple light, despite their lack of the jewel shards needed for the journey. They arrived in the feudal era having left behind Shippo, and the jewel shards that Kagome would need to travel back and forth between time periods. Naraku had effectively trapped her in the feudal era before she wanted.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome realized. "Are you all right?"

He shook his head carefully. His side was bleeding freely, but the wound did not look too threatening. "I'm fine," he smiled. "I was just making sure you would be. He was going for you…"

Kagome nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. "Inuyasha…I don't have the jewel shards…" she frowned. "I can't get back home. Shippo is trapped there with my mother and Souta, and…him…" she managed to choke out.

"Don't lose hope yet, Lady Kagome." Smiled Miroku.

"Why? What's happened?" she demanded.

Sango took a deep breath. "You forget that three shards remain in this time, Kagome. There are two in Kouga's legs, and there is one in my brother's back…"

Kagome shook her head in understanding. "So we just have to find Kouga? Do you guys think that he would willingly hand me his shards? I mean, after all, I don't think he will be too thrilled about the whole me and Inuyasha thing…"

"He'll help you out, or we'll make him help you out, Kagome, but we can not leave Shippo and your family there by themselves knowing what Naraku is capable of." Sango snapped. "Now come on. We have got to hurry if we are going to be of any help to them."

As if he was on some type of cue, Kouga's tell-tale tornado was suddenly seen approaching them from the west. Kagome took a deep breath. Inuyasha groaned in annoyance. He knew for once, however, that now was not the time for his jealousy. It was time to help save Kagome's family, and save Shippo.

The annoying wolf demon made it a point to land almost on top of Inuyasha when he finally stopped to take Kagome's hand. Kagome pulled her hand away gently, making Inuyasha smile, despite the wolf stench that was now all over him.

Kouga gasped. "Kagome, what…oh, who cares! I don't care! I still want to take you as my…" he began, but stopped short when Inuyasha jumped protectively in front of Kagome.

"I don't think so, wolf." He growled. "You won't be taking Kagome anywhere, least of all will you be taking her as a mate."

"And who died and made you the supreme youkai in these lands, Inuyasha? Last I checked you were still nothing but a hanyou." Kouga snapped.

Kagome took a deep breath. "No one died, Kouga, but he speaks the truth. I do not want to become your mate…I want to become his, but…but Naraku has killed my grandfather and has Shippo and my family in my time. He has trapped us here without any jewel shards, so that I have no way to return home to help them." Kagome explained.

Kouga blinked. "You don't want me…you'd rather be with Inuyasha…but you want me to help you by giving you my jewel shards so you can go off and rush into battle with Naraku?" Kouga summed everything up, and Kagome nodded timidly.

"Kouga, this is serious. Only three shards remain…the two in your legs, and the one inside the one called Kohaku's back. If we can't get back to the future in time, there is no way that Kagome's family will survive. Shippo is not even seven years old yet…" The look in Inuyasha's eyes changed as he said this. He would probably never admit it to anyone other than Kagome, but the whole situation they found themselves in at the moment scared him to death, and the idea that Shippo, who Inuyasha secretly thought of as his own pup, was on his own, frightened him to no end.

Kouga seemed to be turning everything over inside his own head for the longest time. Kagome didn't want to be with him. Kagome loved Inuyasha. Kagome was going to mate with Inuyasha, and not him. But at the same time, was he going to let all that Kagome had talked about actually happen? He couldn't, could he? And he could still help Kagome out, couldn't he, even if she didn't want to be with him?

"I'll do it." Kouga heard himself say as these thoughts ran through his head. "I will give you my jewel shards, but in exchange I want to be able to come with you and assist in the fight with Naraku." He said quickly.

Kagome sighed with relief. "Thank you, Kouga. This means the world to all of us."

>>>>>>

A/N: Haha! Cliffie! (dramatic music) I will update soon! If…you promise to review:D