Hello again—and yes, the chapter is late. Very. sigh But you all know me, next week means next month. I really don't TRY to have everything come out years later, I just never get around to posting updates!

Anyway, here is the chapter. This is where everything starts to get confusing and exciting at the same time! And no, this chapter IS going to move outside the dungeon... since I hate stories where the characters seem to be sitting in the same room for five chapters. Here you go; enjoy!

Forbidden to Love

Chapter Four: Escape

By: Kaji-chan

A shiver ran through her, and she bit her lip, her eyes fluttering open. Everything seemed detached and foggy, her eyes swirling against the darkness of her cell. Her warm breath curled visably around her lips, blue and unmoving. She moved a hand from underneath her cheek and pressed her palm against the cell floor. The uneven stone was so... cold.

Perhaps it was the chill that woke her. But even so, she felt too detached and drugged to be awake. Was she really awake, or still dreaming?

She shifted, her back brushing the icy stone and sending another shiver up her body. Maybe if she used a bit of her energy to warm herself? Her eyes focused loosely on the crystalization of her breath in the cold. Even if she was storing her energy, couldn't she use a little of it?

Her eyes dilated as she drew her focus in, pulling a little energy outwards. She instantly felt a light heat blanket her, melting away the frost that seemed to be collecting around her. She let her eyes slide closed, her fingers curling into her chest as she pulled into herself.

A sudden heat pulsed beneath her hands, and her eyes opened in confusion. She glanced down, a gasp pausing on her lips and shock overtaking her facial features as she found her body glowing a light purple hue. The heat suddenly became divergent, pulsing painfully from her center, and she found her gasp choked.

Her hands wrapped around her torso as if to prevent it from it's un-natural throbbing, fear shining in her eyes, covered by a dull hint of red. "Wh-what!" she cried, an almost painful drumming sensation animating from within her. "Ite…!"

Her eyes widened as she heard a distant, male voice flutter through the darkness.

"I see you…"

Her body began to convulse, and she swallowed the scream forcing through her throat, her lips open but emitting no sound. The light purple hue suddenly burst into a cluster of hot, scorching violet flames, engulfing her body as she screamed silently in pain. She felt as if she was being torn from the inside out.

"Miko…"

Her eyes began to dilate, their misty, blue-grey orbs suddenly beginning to waver, the blue fading completely from her eyes, leaving behind only the silent trace of remniscent grey. Her cry ripped past her lips, another painful pulsing spreading through her body, a sharp tingle traveling through her core, dilating in her eyes. She felt her muscles begin to ache and burn, as if they were changing shape. Twin slices of pain lanced across her cheeks, and her hands shot up to cover them, lightly scraping her face.

She hissed in pain, pulling her hands away to find a light coat of blood at what she had though to be her fingertips. Instead, she found her breath choking in the back her throat as she gazed down at the lengthened and sharpened tips of her nails.

"Kuro miko…"

"I-IYA!" she screamed at the bodiless voice, shaking her head and tucking into herself, her hands clasped firmly over her ears to shut out the voice. She felt another lance of pain cleave through her forehead and let loose a small cry of pain. Her eyes began to glow, almost like they were burning with her body, their color wavering once more as her vision blurred into a darker, more dangerous tone. Her lips fell open in a gasped part, her eyes bleeding to a dark, shimmering red...

-----

Kagome's eyes opened slowly, the dream slowly fading in her mind as the room swirled around her in a dull haze, attempting to focus on the stone wall before her. She blinked the sleep from her eyes, rolling onto her back with a grimace. What had she dreamt about again? She paused, lingering on it, realizing that she had already forgotten it. Was it about death? She felt like crap, so... maybe it was?

Unfortunately, it only further depressed her on her current situation. If she could have chosen any way to die, the last she would have selected among the long list of demise would have been what she was experiencing at that given moment.

It had been at least a two weeks since her capture. It had also been at least a week since she had eaten anything. She could feel the weight of her malnutrition pulling her down, slowly. Day by day, her powers grew weaker, as did her strength. She was draining so much of her powers just to sustain her life force, let alone her hunger, that she was seriously considering faking dead so that they'd drag her out and throw her in the ocean, in which case she would make a daring escape and swim for two days straight until she reached home again. But that was far too cliche for her taste, and rarely worked...

Of course, she was also the most valuable of the prisoners, and they would never do something as stupid as throw her in the ocean. She was now to a point where moving cost her so much energy that it wasn't even worth the effort to roll over in her sleep. Her energy was too valuable to waste on her comfort.

With the draining of her powers through starving herself, and the lack of energy to sustain consciousness, her healing process had slowed so drastically that it seemed she would age faster than the restoration of normal skin color where her bruises were concerned. It seemed to take up all of her reserves just to keep her eyes open for the entirety of the day, let alone anything else.

It wasn't the fact that she was unable to stand... or that she was unable to stay awake... or that she was unable to heal her wounds at a faster rate than they were currently. No... She was waiting. She was conserving her energy, only allowing herself enough each day to sustain her life. She knew that when she gave the impression that she appeared the weakest, that he would come and pay her another visit.

She knew that if she wasted her energy on healing that she would never have enough energy for her escape, for she was certain that it would not be as simple as running out the front door. There would definately be a battle involved.

She had been working on slowly pulling at the chains, stretching out the links as far as they would go on her right arm. This way, she could hide the extra reach until he was in range for her to grab him. If she was lucky, a swift, quick tug might even break her chain.

And when he did, she wouldn't have to worry about sleeping on the cold, stone floor that she had been occupying for the past weeks any longer. As soon as he stepped through the cell door... all she would have to do is withdraw enough of her reserves to reach forward, grab his leg or arm, and pump as much purification into him as possible.

With him dead, not only would she be eliminating a military figure, but also granting her freedom. She could sense the auras of the guards and soldiers stations around the area. They would be easy fodder to the miko princess as soon as she absorbed the remains of the dead general's spiritual energy.

Kagome closed her eyes, feeling her muscles relax as she continued to build up and store her powers within her. It wouldn't be long now. He was bound to appear eventually... she was here to provide a link for them to the lost city, so her explicit information was critical to their military intellegence.

Lying there for those days had allowed her to indulge within her current situation... to fill out every blank which had been clouding her mind's eye for the past weeks of battle against the youkai. It was obvious that they were searching for the remaining fortress of the enemy... but it had been uncertain whether they truely knew its location and were just waiting for the right moment or whether they were still chasing their tails.

It seemed to be the latter.

Any idiot would be able to see that they hadn't decided to dub her a "prisoner of war" because she was a sole threat militarily, nor because they wanted some petty object like ransom money. No... they were still completely clueless to the location of Dimentoria, hence their desperation to attain any information on it's position possible.

And she knew... he had told her... that when she was about to die, he would come. She knew that if she could fake her condition, or make it appear that it was worsening, the sooner he would come. It had been at least a week since he had last seen him, and a week since she'd had any food or water. Each day she grew weaker, but each day passing drew her closer to the day he would come and she would exact her revenge.

Hopefully, Kouga and Sango were able to relay information back to her mother... The city needed to be prepared never-the-less, and on alert for youkai search parties. Kagome was not just vital to the city for military purposes, but also because of her ability to see "into the future", so to speak. Occasionally, she would be visited by a foreseeing dream or vision which highlighted a forboding future event. With this power, she had prevented the discovery of the city of multiple occasions, but without her there...

Kagome bit her lip. There was nothing she could do at the moment... but as soon as she was free, then she could--

"Still alive, are you?"

Her jaw clenched at his voice, supressing the startled reaction his sudden appearance had caused. Was she that relaxed that she didn't even feel his presence as he entered the room? Kagome's eyes narrowed upon him. "Alive enough to spit on you," she hissed, her voice cracked and throat raw. She slowly turned her head, feeling a shiver run down her spine as her cheek grazed the cold surface of the dungeon floor to watch his smug grin fall from his features.

He glared at her, his lips curling over his fangs in a sneer, but still retaining a bit of humor in his eyes. "You're a fucking idiot. You're wasting your life resisting."

"Better wasted in resitance than submission." she replied, moving her arm slowly, grimacing for effect. She could feel his eyes on her, feel his skeptical glance--it was working. He was letting his guard down... if she kept up this charade, he might let his guard down long enough for her to get close to him. Her weak frown beckoned him forward in challenge. "I still have enough life left in me to kill the likes of you, cowering behind the safety of bars. Your only strength is in the weakness of others. One day you will find it reversed, and the strong will be crushing you for your overconfidence and ignorance."

He took the bait, stepping forward with a snarl. "You are not in the position to be making threats, woman," he said, his hand resting on the tattered hilt of his stationary sword. She had yet to see him draw it as of yet. "And your fucking proverbs are worthless to my knowledge, so spare your breath."

She watched him carfully, judging his reflexes and the distance of which she could reach, deciding she would need him to be just a bit closer than he was. "I wouldn't mock me." She watched him raise his eyebrows and gave him a weak glare. "You were lucky in our battle."

"Luck, was it?" he replied, his tone edged as she continued to bait him. Inuyasha stepped closer to the cell, his arms folded across his chest as he frowned darkly down upon her curled, pitiful form. "You were the one who--what the!"

She didn't allow him to finish his sentance. With one swift jerk, the chains snapped, allowing her to stretch one hand forward through the bars, grasping tightly onto his leg before he could leap away. Not that he would have; he seemed far too surprised to even think of pulling away, though he was probably more than capable of it. Concentrating all of her conserved energy, purification energy hummed up and down the length of her arm as she blasted his soul with all of the power within her.

A flaming purple pulsed upon him, wrapping around his form and crackling with a deadly energy as it reacted violently with his demonic spirit. His legs buckled as he was struck rigid with her power, feeling as if electricity was flowing through his veins, followed by a stark shock of pain piercing every end of his body. The hanyou contracted, groaning, and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily but seemingly unconscious.

Kagome panted, her chest heaving in effort as she, too, collapsed, slumping against the bars and straining for breath. Never had an energy drain taken so much out of her. She reached a shaky hand forward, her fingers grasping a slender ring from inside his pocket, slipping it out and sighing in relief as she gazed at the key dangling from it. With a trembling hand and much difficulty, she was able to slip the key into the lock, twisting it and smiling as the lock snapped open. She pushed it open, ignoring its groan as the door strained against the rusted hinges, crawling weakly towards the still form of the fallen half-demon.

She knelt before him, leaning forward onto her hands as she studied him. It seemed as though he was still alive... how had he managed to survive her attack? Even at the state she was in, her purification was strong enough to kill ten lesser demons without breaking a sweat. Her head tilted to the side—well, he wasn't exactly a lesser demon, now, was he?

But his survival wasn't any of her concern now. But the time he came to, she would be long gone anyway. She didn't have the energy to finish off the job, and needed to hurry out of the dungeon before the idiots guarding it realized that she had knocked out their head in command.

She slanted him a half-hearted smile, her eyebrows drawn together as her hands shook from exhaustion. "It seems..." she took a strangled breath, "that you will... be allowed to live... a bit longer, hanyou." Kagome tilted her head slightly to the side, studying him with a cautious eye. Now that she got a good look at him up close, he had a fairly young looking face; but it was difficult to tell with youkai, as they were, in a certain sense, immortal.

She closed her eyes, lifting a shaking hand towards him. He was her enemy.

Biting her lip, she rested her palm on his back, taking a deep, shuddering breath as she re-centered her distraught focus upon the energy before her. Spayling her fingers across his back, she pressed her palm to him, reaching into his soul with her own and grasping firmly upon his spirit energy. "Please excuse me," she apologized underneath her breath, "but I must borrow some of you to make my escape. I thank you in advance." Closing her eyes, she concentrated her small amout of energy through her palm, drawing forth bits of his power into herself, feeling a pulsing warmth spread through her body with every refreshing wave of refound strength.

Her body slowly began to relax, the cold whisps of death slowly fading with each renewal of life from his unconscious being. She felt a sigh of relief escape her lips, and she released his soul, drawing away from him in a small sense of satisfaction. She rolled to her feet, standing in an oddly fluid motion. "Interesting..." she whispered.

Kagome smiled despite herself. She had never borrowed power from a hanyou before--an inu hanyou in particular--and its side effects were quite voluptuous, her agility and muscle enhancement in particular. The effects, however, were merely temporary—her powers would surely purify them within the hour. At best, she had thirty minutes before she exhausted herself, so as long as she could get out of the castle and to some form of refuge, she could replenish her energy and progress from there.

Not wasting another moment, she walked briskly to the weapon rack in the corner, brandished with generic weapons for the cell guards, left untended and at her coincidental disposal. Her gaze shifted over the array of guns, turning her nose up in disgust. Shooting someone seemed far too easy of a death for a foe, and made her feel shallow in doing so.

Attempting to not be particular, however, she unshealthed a nice, light, slender sword, appearing almost unused. It wasn't hard to believe that the sword was probably never used, considering that the olden weapons were far below in terms of favoritism compared to guns and the like. It's feminine appearence had probably kept its good condition from the barating of its male owners as well. She hadn't used a sword in quite a while, but since she did not see any bows (her usual preference), it would have to do for now. Besides, it didn't matter much the medium as long as she could pump purification through it.

Grasping it tightly, she shed one final glance at the hanyou's fallen body. She couldn't help but hold a certain respect for him; after all, he was only a half demon among the hoards of full-youkai he commandded. She smiled, mockingly blowing him a farewell kiss before fleeing through the open prison door.

She paused by the wall, tightly gripping her sword as she peered slowly around the corner. Her eyes fell upon the youkai along the walls; it seemed the were some sort of guards, though few of them were in a human form. They seemed easy enough...

She had not taken three steps around the corner before she was noticed by a few of the gate guards as an escaped prisoner. At least it hadn't particuarly hindered her plans; she hadn't exactly been aiming for a stealthy escape. Too bad... for them, anyway.

They rushed at her, one of them a humanoid shape, and the other two more of a dragon-esque appearance. She calculated the first attack and planned the counter in a matter of a seconds, sizing up her enemy and planning her defense. The first to attack was the flying ryuyoukai, who simply barreled forward, fangs bared.

In the back of her mind, a gripping fear clenched her thoughts. Battle. Her heart fluttered at the thought. Immediately she squelched the expression, closing her mind off to it and allowing adrenaline to overcome it. A slow, consuming red began to seep into her from the back of her mind, absorbing into her movements—long ago she may have been an excellent fighter... she may have forgotten her past, but her muscle memory was impeccable. She slid easily into past remembrance, allowing her fear to sink beyond her impulse.

Kagome drove her left heel into the ground, catching a grove in the uneven stone and forcing a change in direction as she pivoted, making a graceful arc with the rapier and slashing the open jaw in two, twisting away from the gush of blood and taking a quick jump into the air over the falling enemy. On cue, the second youkai approached from behind the first, raising a heavy arm to crush her. She could already feel her mind dying into a haze as a strange instinct overtook her, her body already knowing its course as she dodged the hefty swipe and jabbed forward through the neck of the second.

She landed deftly, jerking her sword out of the collapsing demon and pushing off to the side as it fell heavily upon the stone inches from her feet. Kagome's eyes had not yet turned to fully expose the next oponent for her vision before she swung back with the sword, powerfully slicing him diagonally from his shoulder to the waist. Her head remained turned away, ignoring the squelching sound as it slid into two and made a sickening plop against the bloodslick floor.

She couldn't wait, couldn't allow herself to give it attention. The moment she allowed herself to come to terms with the reality—the feeling in her fingers as her grip tightened over the sword's hilt, the clench of her stomach as the feel of metal through flesh slipped down the length of the sword to her palm and up her arm—the second she allowed herself to dwell upon it, the haze she had shrouded her mind in would disappear... and she would die.

Kagome shook the thick, black demon blood from her sword with a smooth flick of the wrist, ignoring its splatter as it stained the wall. She bit her lip, further supressing the tears that wanted to surface, falling deeper into silence and shooting off again down the hall. It was as if she was on automatic propulsion; as if her body was moving forward and her thoughts were too slow to keep up with it. Her feet pounded upon the ground as she quickened her pace, sensing and hearing the approach of more enemies, gripping her hilt with white knuckles.

The hoard of youkai heading for her was led by a group of human looking demons, who were the first to approach her, leaving the easier opponents behind them. She drew one arm back as she prepared to swing herself around her left shoulder. One more step...

She threw her weight back, whipping around herself and throwing out a long, horizontal slash at the first contender, beheading him gracefully. She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed, moving on. The second guard fell to a similar fate, as did the next as Kagome swiftly redirected her momentum and swiped at their exposed fronts easily. Her sword's oddly lengthed blade offered a complimentary advantage against the common, stumbling infantry with their large, swords. She could kill three in one swing in the time it took one to draw out his club and pull back to bash at her.

The next wave of soldiers fell to a graceful skimmering of their thinned armor, as did the next, befallen by the glowing, purification blade, moving swiftly to the large group of low level youaki. She skillfully slashed through the small clusters of underlings, lightly dancing around their awkward swings and blundering grabs with her saber, utilizing well her borrowed agility from the hanyou.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered how this was all possible. How did she know how to move, which way to shift, how to grip a sword she had never seen before in her life? In many ways it scared her—to the point which she wanted to know nothing of the horrors in her past. Perhaps it was too gruesome for her to remember. Too shameful to recall.

Even so, she was getting through the defenses without hardly any difficulty; it puzzled her to think of such, especially as only one assaulting their small army of guards. This was far easier than she had originally thought. Surely these demons would have thought to guard her entrapment with far better defenses... than...

There it was! She could see the door before her, the looming double doors to freedom! Her blood pumped wildly in her veins, and her pace quickened with anticipation. For weeks she had bid her time in the cold, stuffy dungeon cell, and now, finally, she would be making her way back to—

Kagome's thoughts slowly trailed away as her running slowed, coming to a stiffly awkward halt as her eyes trailed up and down the front of her new, rather fierce looking enemy. Her adrenaline rush began to fade as her sword lowered, the haze retracting from her eyes as there were no more enemies. None but one. "Ah..."

He would have appeared to be another ordinary guard, if it weren't for his difference in dress and the strong chill running up her spine which told her otherwise. She was a bit surprised to find that he was clothed in traditional attire; he wore a fairly fancy white kimono, a yellow obi secured tightly around his waist in an elaborate design. He was adorned with a light weight, black armor, and a spiked twist of metal snaked elegantly over his shoulder. He wore a cold expression upon his dark features, one that glinted wildly in the seemingly calm amber of his narrowed eyes; adorned his cheeks and long, silver hair fell over his eyes and drifting upon his back.

Who was this man?

His hand flowed from his side to brush against the hilt of his sword, resting against his hip. He just stood there, tall, obstinate, and deftly calm. His eyes flicked over her form, studying her with a slowly instigating frown.

It seemed, without him glancing away from her, that he decided against attacking her, for his hand floated, once again, back to his side. "Who are you?" he asked after a long moment of tense silence, though his question appeared to be more of a demand than a request for answering. His words were as smooth and fluid as his movements, and his tone as devoid of emotion as his cold, amber eyes. She suddenly realized his striking resemblance to that hanyou.

Her fingers curled hesitantly against the hilt of her sword, a soft, purple glow beginning to envelop the length of the blade once more as she suspected an attack from the demon before her. Kagome bit her lip, waiting expectantly for the hum of adrenaline and shade over her eyes as her body overtook her, but was surprised to find it absent. Was this man not a threat? Her grip loosened.

"Who are you?"

His tone was bitingly insistent, as if incredibly annoyed by her unwillingness to answer. The sharp edge in his tone made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and her grip immediately tightened once more upon the blade.

Kagome blinked, confused by his question. It should have been obvious to him that she was a miko. She was, however, unable to discern the meaning of his question by his monotone, though harsh in his apparent impressions. "Wha-what?" she stuttered, her expression a bit perplexed, if not confused.

She was too shocked and distracted by her thoughts to move as he took a quick, fluid leap forward, drawing back a glowing clawed hand. She was unprepared, and her muscles didn't react quick enough to escape him as his arm arched towards her in a deadly arc. In that frozen moment, the haze of her adrenaline completely receded, she felt such an overwhelming sensation of fear overtake her that she dropped the sword, the loud crash as it clattered to the floor completely dull to her ears beneath the roaring of blood pumping furiously in her temple.

The green claws raked her across her front before she could even twitch in response, the overwhelming force of the swipe slamming her body into the wall behind her with a sickening crack.

Kagome slid down the stone barrier slowly and painfully, feeling a small trickle of blood down the bridge of her nose from where it blossumed at the top of her bowed head. She lifted her head, watching the creature's approach through blood tinted eyes, wide in fear, her hand reaching over to tightly clench the slashes across the length of her stomach.

He watched her, impassively, and took slow, even steps towards her. She could feel the smooth, sickly texture of blood as it pushed up through her fingers and slowly began to dribble down her front. Her eyes lowered to her wound, trembling as she saw it pulse with a sickening green color. Kagome's gaze raised to him, as he was now standing above her with an almost tired expression of uncaring, her lips stumbling over a terrified whisper. "P-poison?"

He did not reply, merely glaring at her as if she was an annoyingly boring object in the way of his daily routines. She reached behind her with her spare hand, pulling herself away from him as her feet struggled against the small, slick puddle of her enemies' blood.

The man observed her with an unreadable expression, and she felt a strong sense of fear constrict her chest as her powers were rapidly draining in battle against the poison spreading through her body. "St-stay... away from me..." she hissed, her words fumbling upon her trembling lips. How had his poison affected her that quickly!

He paused, raising an eyebrow at her as a soft, purple glow began to envelop her form. "Who are you?" he spoke again, demanding a satisfactory answer with a cold glare.

"I am K-Kagome," she replied, her breathing becoming heavy as she fought the drain. "I am the princess... of..."

"Who are you?" he repeated. He seemed to be getting annoyed by her inablity to answer his question.

"I-I..." She continued to back away from him, crawling upon her back as she struggled for words. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she cried, her hand grappling against the ground with dirtied fingers.

"Don't touch her. She's mine, Sesshoumaru."

The man addressed as Sesshoumaru looked away from her to focus on the voice behind her. Kagome felt her chest clench as she recognized the voice. She turned her eyes to follow his gaze, resting them upon a familiar figure, leaning haphazardly against the support of an old katana. "B-but—I thought I..." she whispered, a gasp hitching in her throat.

A small, fangless grin curled upon his lips.

"It seems that you did a bad job, then, doesn't it, bitch?"

Okay! End chapter! Sorry about the shortness. So, I got some Sesshoumaru action going on... what do you think? I'm excited to write the next chapter... aren't you excited to read it?

Chapter Five: Demon Blood