SUMMARY: Inuyasha could feel himself disconnect from reality as he remember his haunting youthful past. 'All those times he would pop up out of the middle of nowhere when Kagome was with me.' It was like a movie reel playing in his mind's eye, and someone had hit fast forward showing sequences of events, dates with Kagome, and the murder scenes over the ten years. "That fuckers our serial murder!"
Author's Note: peeks head out from under the rock. Yeah, I know its been ages, but I'm working full time as a teacher and still going to school. Have mercy! Enjoy, and review to let me know what you think.
CHAPTER 11: IDENTITY UNCOVERED
The skin was literally felting off his face in layers. It was like butter felting in the frying pan. 'No! No!' Romeo screamed in agony. 'She'll never want me now!' His hands clawed his raw face trying to rub off the flames that scorched him. Romeo's howling of pain was not as loud as the sirens off in the distance. And it briefly registered in the back of his mind that he needed to get the hell out of this place. Romeo cracked open a blistering oozing eye whose lids were bloody and blurred his stinging vision. Ever thing was distorted in Romeo's eyes, even long before for the fire seared him.
Figures and images merged into bobbles of things moving as one as Romeo crawled on all fours. 'Must leave. Must leave.' He repeated over and over like a broken record.
It was truly as dark miracle, a blessing from the devil himself, in Romeo's mind that he made it out of the back yard. He had to use his senses of touch to feel his way around the hot flames. Romeo stumbled and faltered as he made it out of the back yard. He needed help; he needed someone he trusted to aid in his escape and not whisper a word of this. He dug into his pocket frantically searching for his cell phone, as the siren grew louder. Romeo pressed star 133 and speed dial then listened as the phone rang.
"Hello." A devilish smooth voice answered on the third ring with a hint of acknowledgement.
"There's been an accident. I need help." Romeo whimpered.
"It's going to cost you." The man's voice mocked with amusement across the line.
"Anything demon! Anything you want, you can have." Romeo felt weak as he bartered with his psychologist. The prick had helped weave this dastardly web of murder and obsession.
"Ah, Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou? The price is high, the cost is great; to save your soul before it's too late."
Kagome lost herself in the warmth of Inuyasha's arms, as he carried her towards the bed. They momentarily broke their passionate kiss as he lowered her gentle to the mattress so that she was in the center, before lowering himself on top of her. Kagome's breath was ragged, but she smiled at Inuyasha as she welcome him into her awaiting embrace. She noticed how bright Inuyasha's eyes burned into her cerulean ones. It was like he could devour her whole.
Her arms beckoned him, pulling him into her, and Inuyasha wasn't going to deny her. He never let his eyes leave Kagome's, however; he noticed her lips slightly swollen and very rosy. Inuyasha leaned back in to the goddess before him and took her inviting lips again. This carnal desire settled in him like a red haze as he settled between Kagome's shapely legs. 'No!' Inuyasha groaned as he heard the phone in the suite ring. 'No fucking way! Who in the hell has the worst time!'
Sesshoumaru waited as Inuyasha's cell phone number dialed through and rang. After the sixth ring, Sesshoumaru felt his patience diminish greatly. 'Answer the phone half-breed!' He let the phone call continue to go through, thinking that his half brother was deliberately avoiding him.
Rin's temper had reached an all time high, and she was going take it out on one person. She wrapped the bed sheet around herself like a toga as she walked near a double door. Rin opened the door making quite a scene, or rather, an entrance.
Sesshoumaru smirked at the sound of his double doors slamming against the wall. He could since her the moment she set foot on the floor. Sesshoumaru knew that Rin thought he had used her and then left her, and that was the cause of her behavior. 'Humans and their illogical way of thinking.'
"You!" Rin shouted when she spotted silver flowing hair on the far side of the room. She wished her eyes would burn holes in the back of his head, but Rin settled for a scathing glare. Rin noticed that Sesshoumaru was turned away from her, but that didn't detour her in the least. Rin's mouth opened to let loose on, 'The almightier than thou Taiyoukai.' "Who in the hell to you think you are!" she bellowed.
'Amazing that someone so small can be so loud!' he thought. Sesshoumaru turned around painstakingly slow.
Rin continued to berate the dog demon, but what she saw when he turned around quieted her right away. 'Why didn't I realize he was naked!' Rin thought a little surprised. She fought herself not to let her wondering eyes traverse the any farther down the length of the well endowed Inuyoukai.
A perfectly sculpted eye brow rose at the bold look coming from Rin.
Sango moaned painfully, her legs were killing her. Well, not really, but she sure thought they were going to. She was slipping in and out of consciousness when a loud noise exploded above her. It sent sound waves thrashing around everywhere, rattling anything and everything it came into contact with, and that's when Sango could hear someone screaming in the back ground, it caused her to shiver. The sound was awful, like a human being skinned alive.
"Sango? Sango can you hear me?"
She let out a groan in reply. Her eyes flicked open looking up at where the voice had come from. Her eyes adjusted and found Miroku hovering above her. "Miroku." Sango replied in utter relief that she was no longer in danger.
Kouga was quick back on his feet; he needed to survey their surrounding and assess the current situation as hand. His blue eyes searched for the fucking bastard that he was so close to nailing, but the flames hide the chicken shit from his view. He tried smelling for any odd scent in the air, but couldn't find a damn thing. The only thing Kouga was inhaling was the scent of burning hot ash. 'Fuck, dog turd isn't going to be happy,' Kouga though grimly. His elf like ears picked up on the siren coming closer.
"Kouga," Miroku yelled. "We need to get Sango to the hospital these burns on her legs are bad." His eyes never let the woman of his dreams as he continued to assess her injuries. Miroku knew that the burns needed immediate attention, and right now the only thing he could think of was that she was alive. He tried to steel himself and remained focus, but all those years of medical training seemed to leave him. This was just to close, to damn personal to him. Something akin to evil arouse within the ex- houshi, something that craved revenge against the man who dare tried to kill the only woman in the world he wanted, longed for. Somewhere in Miroku's rationale mind, he realized just how thin that line was, and how easy it would be to cross it and become a murderer.
"It burns… Miroku" Sango whimpered and closed her eyes in an attempt to forget about the pain.
Her voice broke through Miroku's murderous thoughts of vengeance, and reminded him that she was more important at the moment. Yet, the thoughts of hunting down the asshole didn't completely leave him either.
It seemed like he had waited there in the street gutter forever. 'Is this, what is feels like,' Romeo thought, 'when you're dying?' The pain was so excruciating he wanted to ripe off his face, but then Romeo began to think. 'If I have no face, then I would have no identity. That thought as some merit.' Romeo's inner beast agreed.
"Well, well, well…" the voice of his psychologist came out almost blending in with the night, "what do we have here?" Red eyes glowed in the pitch of night, watching his patient, his work of art writhing in pain. Naraku almost shuddered looking at his patient's now unrecognizable face. Red blistering pockets of skin boiled to the surface of the unstable young man's face. Blood seeped out of open wounds and mixed with another bodily fluid. Gone was the deceiving boyish good look, no more was the wavy dirty brown hair, and eye brows.
He laid there on the operating table in a drug induced coma. The only things he remembered were the voices and that's when he was conscious, other than that, nothing else.
"So, brother, what is it that I'm going to do this time?"
Naraku smiled at his mirror image. "Reconstructive and plastic surgery is a wonderful thing." He began, weaving a tale. "If you're fat, you get liposuction, if you're less than endowed," Naraku joked lightly, "you get implants."
Onigumo knew were this was going and finished his twin's line of thought. "If you're badly burned, to the point you're unrecognizable, you change your appearance. Your face."
Naraku flashed a brilliant pearly white smile. "Exactly!" He shoved his hand into his breast pocket to withdraw a photograph. It was a black and white photo, proximately eight years old, slightly wrinkled in some places. Naraku extended it out to his brother.
Onigumo's eyes widened slightly as he took in the person in the picture. The thing that captivated him the most about this individual was his light colored hair, and bright vibrant eyes which seemed to be staring intimidatingly at him. "Who is this?"
"That, my dear brother, is who you are going to create my patient into." Naraku pointed to the insane man lying deathly still on the O.R. table. "I know in black and white it is so hard to see the demonic features, but picture this…" he said with a dramatic pause. "A man with waist length silver hair, and golden eyes that are the molten sun; sharp razor like nails, and a smug, cocky grin that reveals pointed canine fangs. Oh, and let us not forget the most important feature of all!" Naraku wanted to laugh as he thought about the nightmare that was to come. "Two dog shaped ears."
Onigumo gave his brother an eerie grin as he saw the picture coming together. "Yes dear brother, I can see it now." He memorized every detail of the picture, engraving it into memory for the task at hand.
"Another life taken and destroyed," Naraku chuckled in delight, "by our diabolical genius! This one was so easy to turn." He bragged, as a finely manicured hand flipped back a wavy strand of hair behind his shoulder. "I, for one, can't wait until this sick confused bastard does something terribly gruesome."
"Yes," Onigumo agreed vehemently, "The pay out for insuring a psycho-medical facility and their patients, which are highly unstable, is quite rewarding."
"Hmmm…. Especially if they kill someone"
"All in good time," Onigumo consoled, "all in good time."
"Nurse Urasuea, inject 10 cc of benzomethlytrizenne"
"Yes, Doctor Onigumo"
Romeo heard someone counting backward to ten. "ten, nine, eight, seven…" He never heard the rest of it, because he lost conscious again from the drugs in his system.
"Nurse, give me the scalpel."
"Blood pressure is 120 over 90"
"Skin graph."
"Increase I.V. drip."
"Attachments ready."
Kagome for a moment thought that the ringing was in her ears, but soon realized it was a cell phone. She pulled backed and blinked a few times, her breath ragged, as she struggled to overcome her aroused state. Inuyasha's grumbling only confirmed it, as the cell phone continued to ring that she hadn't imagined the cell phone going off.
Inuyasha smirked for a moment that the fact that Kagome was deep in a passionate haze, which he put her in. Yet, the continuous ring of the phone was grating on his nerve. 'Who, in the world, damn it as the worst freakin' timing?' Inuyasha stalked off and to answer the cell phone, leaving Kagome in the bridal suite alone. He picked up the annoying piece of plastic looking at the caller I.D. "What the hell do you want!" Inuyasha bellowed as he answered the phone. It just added on, one more reason on his long list of reasons why, why to dismember his beloved brother.
Sesshoumaru pulled the phone away from his ear. When he thought it was safe to put the phone back against his ear, Sesshoumaru did.
Rin watched in utter enthrallment, yet she listened as Sesshoumaru growled into the phone. It was a series of short and long snarled growls which varied in nature from guttural to throaty. The hairs on the back of Rin's neck stood on end, as the sneaking suspicion came to her that Sesshoumaru was possibly communicating that way for a reason. 'I bet he is doing that on purpose. He doesn't want me to know what he is talking about.' She fisted her hands and placed my on her hips while her small tipped nose pointed away from the taiyoukai.
He almost couldn't believe it, and Inuyasha fought the urge to stick a finger in his ear to see if he had anything lodged in there. The old language hadn't been used for years, or should he say centuries. It was something innate for all inuyoukais; inbred with in them, but since no other species of demon or humans understood knew it their unique language faded out. Inuyasha growled back to his brother.
'What do you want, Fluffy?'
'Listen half-breed, and listen well. That spitfire of a wench that I am now harboring has seen Romeo.'
'When?'
'A few days ago.'
'What! And you just now decided to tell me! Why the hell didn't you tell me sooner? Or for that matter, why didn't you, fluff for brains, take her to the police?' Inuyasha knew he pissed his brother off, but what he just did was plain stupid, even for him.
'Watch it little brother!' Sesshoumaru warned viciously. 'I just now got around to telling you, so be thankful.'
'I should arrest you for with holding evidence.'
'hn… You could but than you will never get the description.'
'Why you…' Beep
The call waiting feature on the hotel phone censored any foul words that might have come out of Inuyasha's mouth. He snarled at his brother, 'I'll call you later.' Next, Inuyasha hangs up on Sesshoumaru, so that he could answer the incoming call.
It took Chief Myoga over four hours to track Detective Tsuwamono, and that was with the aid of Shippo. With out Red, tracking Inuyasha would have taking a helluva lot longer. He cradled the phone to his ear and listen to the phone ring, ring, and ring. "Damn it, answer the phone!" Chief Myoga groaned over the phone.
He was standing in the hallway of the hospital pacing as far as the pay phone cord would allow. He was desperate to warn Inuyasha about the latest happenings. That bastard, one of their own was behind the murders. The asshole, broke the code of the brotherhood; serve, protect, and defend. "Damnit to hell, I should have known he did it! Sick bastard!"
Patience waned with every monotonous pitch ring of the telephone, and Chief Myoga was going to loose it. Chief Myoga pulled the phone away and was about to pull the phone back on the receiver when his sensitive ears picked up the light click.
"Hello." Inuyasha bellowed. There was no response. He was about to let out a foul string of curse at would make a sailor blush when he heard the commanding shout of Chief Myoga of the line. Inuyasha's ears twitched on top of his head. "Chief?"
"Where, the hell, are you Detective?"
"I'm about two hundred miles from town Chief, why?"
"Shit, Inuyasha, the bastard attacked Sango and torched your house." Chief Myoga let out in a rush.
Kagome heard Inuyasha let out a vicious blood freezing snarl, and she knew it couldn't be good. She ran into the front room where she eyed him, and even though his back was to her, Kagome noticed that he was tense and breathing erratically. Kagome felt her stomach drop, 'please no!'
"Is she okay?"
Kagome paled at those words, but remained silent as she easy dropped on Inuyasha's conversation. Her knees were growing weak and she was close to collapsing. Kagome barely registered the fact that the room was narrowing, along with her vision which was like a tv screen being shut off. The roaring in her ears was becoming overwhelming, and Kagome felt as if her body was defying the fact that just because her heart was pumping blood didn't mean a damn thing when she was ghost white.
"Sango's at the hospital then, but everyone else is safe." Inuyasha grounded in teeth together. He heard a slight gasp from behind when he said Sango's name. Inuyasha turned around in time to see Kagome sway on her feet. "Fuck!"
Inuyasha watched as Kagome lost conscious and started her decent to the ground. He dropped the phone and move like the wind to catch her. "Hold on, Chief, Kagome passed out." He yelled at the cell phone lying on the ground. Inuyasha situated the unconscious woman in his arms and dragged her back to the phone and picked it up. "What else," Inuyasha asked as he fumble with the phone.
"We know who the bastard is Inuyasha, he is one of us." Chief Myoga seemed a little hesitant to tell right away, but he could hear Inuyasha's impatient sigh over the line. "It's Hojo, Inuyasha. It's Hojo." Chief Myoga spent his tale to his Detective over the phone, filling Inuyasha on the facts.
He almost didn't believe it when he heard that name being uttered aloud. Inuyasha would have thought that the pansy ass Hobo was far from the homicidal type, but then again the all around too squeaky clean good guy were the ones that needed to be watched, very carefully. He could have laughed, yet as he thought back, it made perfect sense. Inuyasha felt his blood stir at the memories being dredge up; as unstable as his blood was for being a hanyou, Inuyasha tried to keep it in check. He couldn't afford to lose himself to this bloodlust, to this knowledge.
Inuyasha could feel himself disconnect from reality as he remember his haunting youthful past. 'All those times he would pop up out of the middle of nowhere when Kagome was with me.' It was like a movie reel playing in his mind's eye, and someone had hit fast forward showing sequences of events, dates with Kagome, and the murder scenes over the ten years. "That fuckers our serial murder!"
"And that's not the worse part, Inuyasha." Myoga conceded, "He's on the loose."