Blood Of The Heart

A/N: Hello, all who love me, and various haters! This is the fifth installment of Blood Of The Heart (duh!). I'm so happy! Halloween! Randomness! Gotta love it! LITMAG! SUCKS! IT'S! BORING! Okay, I'm done. Now, my lovely kitty face, just for the heck of it: ('-,-') I'd say cute, but I have a pair of… So that won't work. As for korikitsune's story, it's in the works, and not up yet. On to the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I do not own any way, shape, or form, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, or any other characters belonging to Rumiko Takahashi, who is almighty in the anime/manga world. Plus, I'd like to thank my mom, for having me, my dad, for being there when it happened, God for making me, Jesus for protecting me, and the Academy who went through so much to get me here! Boohoo! I'm so happy!

Chapter 5: When The Night Falls

January 6th, 1641

Dear Diary,

A great deal has happened today that you don't know about! First, I woke up in Inuyasha's bed. I was so happy. I didn't have a single bad dream. I think it's the room I have. I had…I don't know…a nightmare while the sun was up. I was awake the whole time, I believe. I saw a dead woman, which I also saw in a horrible dream that led me into Inuyasha's bed…yay…but she was standing in the mirror instead of me. I was somehow switched with her… I think I wound up in her body and she in mine. But I escaped somehow…don't ask me, I don't know how, but I came hurtling back through the mirror and into my bedroom! It was real too, because the mirror broke!

Then, I went with Sango to the gardens, where she told me how the house was safe from demons…or whatever stalks this town at night. It was that the garden was bright, and all who were inside were safe since all who were outside came to the garden and left the house alone. It was very interesting. You should… see it… but… You can't. You are a book, and I am gifted enough in such times to read and write, unlike others. But I love you anyways! † † † Crosses are for safety here.

Today Miroku had to inform the family that their boy Shippo had died… Or rather undied! He became an undead thing, like those demons that kill people who go out at night. It was horrible. The nun wouldn't let us bury his memory, and when Sango and I told the mother…She seemed to have lost the remaining pieces of her mind. The father, Leon, broke down, and he wept out his heart. It was sad. We also met a boy named Koga, who was… kind of creepy. He kissed my hand and wouldn't stop. It was like he was trying to… eat me. Whoa! I wrote a lot! Anyhoo, to get him off of me I had to tell him I was engaged to Inuyasha! It was fun, but boy! Did he look pissed or what! I can't wait for Inuyasha to meet him. I wonder what would happen…No time for that now. I have to attempt to close my eyes and go to sleep. It was a long day.

Sincerely Yours, Truly and Madly,

Kagome Higurashi

Kagome sighed, not looking forward to sleeping, as she put her diary and ink away. The lone candle that lit her dark room was sputtering away, smelly wax slowly dripping into dark red pools on its stand. She looked out the window. Again she saw the castle at the top of the hill, Schloss Nachtigall, or Castle Nightingale. It stood, forlorn and proud, bathed in the light of the full moon that managed to pierce the dark clouds. Its towers were dark, hulking silhouettes of glittering obsidian, the stark, empty windows specks from so far away, like pores on rock-bound skin.

Were the stones really painted with human blood, like Mother Kaede said? Kagome thought. The visit to the Convent House of the Weeping Mother had her mind buzzing with questions. She asked what delayed Miroku on his duty to save people the night Shippo became undead… Was he waiting for Myoga, Inuyasha, and me? Did we indirectly kill Victoria's little son? Kagome felt sick to her stomach. She stared absently out that window at the castle until the candle sputtered itself into darkness. Moonlight flooded the room, silver beams crisscrossing the floor, dancing amid the shadows.

Suddenly she saw a light in the top room of the top tower. She sat up. Her candle was out. It was not a reflection. "Kagura? Are you really up there?" Kagome whispered breathlessly. She saw this light now, two nights in a row. It had to be Kagura. Who else resided up in Schloss Nachtigall save this mysterious vampire-like count? Was he truly undead? Or was it a figment of lore that involved a past ruler? She really couldn't say anything, except "Kagura, you are one crazy son-of-a-bitch."

With that crazily triumphant thought in her mind, she jumped into her bed, pulled up the warm covers, and snugly let herself drift off into a well-deserved sleep.

The Dream

It wasn't dark this time. Kagome was sitting up in her bed, the moonlight flooding across her white sheets. Next to her lay a man. Who, she did not know, but he was very muscular. His head she did not look at. She was more fascinated by his hands, large hands, like Inuyasha's, which were wrapped around her.

She fiddled with his long fingers, which were tipped with claws as sharp as razors. She knew that, having cut herself deeply. Red blood dripped down her finger, and she shoved it in her mouth. The blood tasted different than hers, though. It was bitter, no metallic feel to it like her regular blood. It was even darker than her regular blood.

"Kagome," the voice of the body spoke. It was Inuyasha's. She looked up at his head, and was very surprised with what she saw. His hair, rather than the rich black, was gleaming silver, demonic little dog-ears sticking out of his head. His eyes were bright gold, and fangs hung over his lips. She was startled, but not unpleasantly so.

"Inuyasha," she responded, feeling herself getting flushed.

"You cut yourself," he said, without looking at her finger. He drew it up to his mouth, and licked the blood clean. "You know that we heal faster, but don't cut yourself. Remember how precious blood is."

"What? Inuyasha, you look different. There is something wrong, isn't there?" She asked worriedly, playing with his silver hair.

"Nothing is wrong Kagome, considering what we now are," Inuyasha said softly. "I cannot believe you fell asleep. There's plenty of time for that during the day. Get up. Let us go get some breakfast."

"Something is very wrong with you, Inuyasha." She began to wonder what kind of messed-up dream this was. So far so good, anyways. "What are you, a vampire?"

"Maybe," he said, pulling back his lips in a smile. His fangs were revealed in there entirety, each an inch long, and probably sharper than his claws. Now she noticed that the tips were stained dark red.

A sweat drop appeared on her head. Not so good anymore. "OH MY GOD!" she cried. "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE A VAMPIRE! AH!" She crawled away from him, to the edge of the bed, as far away as she could get without going over the edge, into the darkness beneath the moonlight.

"Calm, Kagome. You are one as well… or at least will be when I'm done with you…" He grabbed her hand as she tried to dart out of the bed. "Let go of me!" she wailed as he began to drag her back into his arms. She tried to wrench her hand free, and couldn't. His razor grip was digging into her hand, and she couldn't pull away, unless she wanted to rip her hand apart in the process. She already felt blood seeping through her fingers.

"Please, Kagome my dearest! Don't you want to spend all eternity with me? Like you promised me?" She stopped struggling, and stared at him, him in his begging position, not willing to let her leave until she listened to him.

"W-what did you say I did? Repeat it… please…" Her voice trailed off, and her eyes grew wide. She watched him slide out from under the covers, nude. He stared at her his skin as white as the sheets, his eyes of honey penetrating her very existence, staring into the deepest, darkest depths of her heart and soul. She shivered as the gust of his icy gaze pierced her.

"You said to me and many others that I was yours and you were mine, and that we were bound to each other until in death we part." Kagome looked at her left hand. Upon her ring finger, bright and golden, sat a ring, a wedding ring to be exact. It was lovely too, gold and silver braids making up the vine-like band, and the large diamond was cut like an opening flower, its pink and white crystals glittering like pale stars.

She shook her head, blinked her eyes, for they were watering for both happiness and agony. Kagome looked up into his eyes, golden as the band of the ring, her stomach feeling a stone about to plummet from her body. She fixed herself with resolve.

"But you are dead, Inuyasha! Part with me, like you promised!" She watched his eyes as she said this, wondering, hoping that they still held emotion in death. His eyes narrowed, and the warm honey turned to a freezing brass, harsh and bright. Apparently they did have emotion. It was just the wrong type.

"No…" He spoke quietly in a deadly voice that captured her, held her in icy shackles. "I lost you once to him, and sacrificed myself to keep you alive. Look how God repaid me, Kagome. He made me this way. I have been cursed to rise from the dead, bound to this never-aging body, never to be free.

"But you still are alive, as am I- but only in different ways. I have become more powerful, more athletic, stronger, faster, and smarter… I have become a perfected form of… undead. You have remained a human. Think about this statement, Kagome: 'If you are undead, aren't you alive?'" It was a simple, yet profound statement, a move only Inuyasha could execute so perfectly on her. Was this really a dream?

"I-I don't know…" Kagome said, and she could feel him squeezing her hand harder, not letting go. "But I don't want to be a vampire, Inuyasha. Only those who commit suicide, die violently, or are condemned by the Church become vampires. It sounds painful, if you ask me." She was being gut-honest. Who would die to have eternal life? Literally?

"Only for a minute." It was a matter-of-fact statement, as light on his lips as the weather.

"I suppose you'd know… But I don't care if it's less than a second. It is ungodly and satanic, and I won't become what you now are!" She felt her spirit rising, rebellion flaring in her heart like a viscous fire, consuming all of her fears.

"Darling-" he began, but she cut him off.

"Shut up and listen to me, Inuyasha! I loved you, all right? I LOVED you. I can't love you when you are trying to kill me or turn me into a demon! Love isn't cruel, or evil, or unjust, or anything bad at all! You're tying to make me into something evil, like you have become. That is not love, Inuyasha. I don't know how or what you feel towards me, but it is not love."

She felt herself begin to cry, and Inuyasha's grip tightened, until her hand went numb and odd cracking sounds, like ice breaking, echoed. She felt tiny winces of pain, and saw bone rip through her skin.

Her stomach turned, and she felt ready to vomit, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the carnage Inuyasha was doing to her right hand. She could only stare. When he was through, it looked like someone had crumpled up her hand like a bloody, fleshy, bony piece of paper. Not a single portion of skin was seen. What am I dreaming? What is happening? Why don't I wake up now?

She looked at her hand, and felt the bloody remains throb violently, but not enough to be serious. But soon, the throbbing erupted into a full -scale pain that left her shrieking and crying violently, rolling around on the bed, her blood staining the sheets a dark red. Why am I in so much pain? Is this a dream? Do dreams really hurt this much?

She felt herself getting weaker, her vision getting darker, as her life poured out of her right hand and onto the bed covers, while Inuyasha sat there, a nude, beautiful figurer, as pale as his brother in the moonlight, watching her writhe in pain with such indifference he might have been a porcelain doll. Blood even sprayed on him, until it looked like he was sweating it, his hair now spotted crimson. It hurts so much. Let me wake up. Let me wake up.

He opened his mouth to speak, Kagome saw, and above her screams of pain and torture she could hear his smooth, sensuous voice, lips moving to his words, and he spoke to her softly, like he was in a library, or at a grave event.

"You hurt me, Kagome," he spoke. "You hurt me so badly in my heart. I felt the blood that wasn't mine, I could tell whose was whose, and felt guilty for being alive right now, waiting for you. Be glad it's only your hand, Kagome my Darling; it is something that I can fix later. I was thinking about digging your icy heart out of your chest and eating it while your blood still settled. Do you know that if I ripped your heart out fast enough, I could have it finished before you finally died?" Why is he saying this? Why does he want me dead?

He then began to wring out portions of the blood-soaked sheets, letting the blood trickle down into his mouth like canteen water. It spilled over his lips and down his neck and chest, soaking back into the sheets.

Kagome could barely see him, could barely think over the excruciating pain. She felt her mind shattering, her soul being dragged from her, her very semblance of being melting away, all in that exquisite pain. Lord, My God, let me wake, please! she thought.

"We will be together, Kagome," he whispered, bending down to kiss her as she felt her will to live ebb away. "You and me, for all eternity." He bent down, and whispered in her ear, his lips tickling, his fangs cutting, and deceit sewn into his very flesh. "I will never leave you, Kagome. I will follow you to Hell and bring you back with me."

Suddenly, and quite timely in her opinion, Kagome's bedroom door was knocked down, and a dark-haired man swept into the room, his long ebony hair billowing behind him. In his hand he held a shining cross, and Inuyasha hissed, and flew back, as if he was blown away by a blast of strong wind. Suddenly, he was surrounded, clothed in a cape of loving darkness, as if the night sky itself wrapped its arms around him.

The window latch flew open, and the panes were blown back by a great blast of wind, shattering the glass, glittering shards flying into the sky. Wings of shadow, great bat's wings with a combined span of well over twenty feet, shot open, the leathery membrane red as blood in the moonlight. Inuyasha closed his wings, then opened them, and flew out the window, into the night sky, sweeping toward the dark towers of Schloss Nachtigall.

The curtains billowed violently in the icy wind, and Inuyasha's flying form disappeared into the distance. The man with the dark hair swept down to her, and scooped her up in strong, supporting arms. Through the empty darkness around her mind, Kagome saw him, blurrily, his face invisible to her.

"I-Inuyasha…?" she asked, reaching up with her left hand to touch his hair; it was soft, just like Inuyasha's. "Is that you?"

"No, Kagome, it is I." His voice was different, deeper, embedded deep into her thoughts, thoughts she couldn't capture or remember.

"I know your voice," she whispered, and as she struggled to remember, he got clearer. His face was not Inuyasha's, but it looked just as handsome. "Where have I seen you before?"

"I know not where," he responded, "but I know who you are."

"Who are you?"

"I am… Naraku…"

"Mm… Naraku, was it? How bad is my hand?"

"Which one?"

"The only one that is ripped to shreds," she whispered softly. "I can barely think. Check it. How bad?"

"Both hands are fine, Kagome Higurashi."

"You do know who I am. Wait a minute: What did you mean, 'which one?'"

"As I said before, both hands are fine. Look for yourself, dear."

She did. Indeed, both hands were fine. She flexed her fingers, cracked her knuckles, and rotated her wrists. Nothing was wrong. "I don't understand… what happened?"

"This is a dream, Kagome. I exist only in your dreams. But I must warn you, Kagome: stay away from Inuyasha. He just tried to kill you. These dreams you have been having… They are prophecies. The ones with the bloody woman… I do not know their meaning… But this one was easy to discover."

"What? What will Inuyasha do?" She looked into Naraku's eyes, a strange, veiled amethyst color. They seemed to be covering something, but she couldn't tell what.

"Isn't it obvious? He will try to hurt you, Kagome. He will tear your soul apart." Naraku's face was grave, no lies hidden in his strange eyes. She had a hard time believing him, but she felt like she had to trust him, even if her gut was against it.

"I am afraid, Naraku," she wept, burying herself in his warm black robes. "What will I do when I wake up?"

"Open your window, Kagome," he said, "and bear a piece of red cloth on it. Then I will come to you. We can talk more then when I arrive."

"But what will I do if flying demons? The red cloth will attract them!"

"The only flying monsters you should have any worry about are owls and bats."

"Ewww…."

"Trust me, Kagome. I will come to you tomorrow night, and we will speak of Inuyasha's devilries."

End of Chapter Five

A/N: Hola! How do you like this one? Good little element of plot, right? Right? On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 the lowest, 5 the highest, how would you rate Blood Of The Heart? Be totally honest, and tell me what you think, or I'll be mean and update only once every other month. Flatter me and say "No! Too Cruel! Ah! Boohoo!" See you all in the next chapter. If there is one… Wahaha! How was Halloween for you all? Tell me (in your reviews) if you went trick-or-treating.