Blood Of The Heart
By AriznGlori
A/N: Well, its getting better! We're upon the shifting of the plot now! HAHAHA! Aren't you excited? Of course not…('-') KITTY! S-SALMON GOOD…Now, onto installment 11! Hey! Did you know 11 is bad luck in Fung Shei? Sept. 11 is full of 20 different reasons for being unlucky anyway… shudders I'll tell you more at the chapter's end. Ja!
Disclaimer: Do I have to? All right…I own them! Wahaha! Wait! Don't hit me! RUN AWAY! Oh well, I really do own them; honest! What are you holding that bat for? Why are chasing me with that maniacal look in your eyes? AH! A MUGGER! AH! You can't have them you cursing fool!
Chapter 11: Glass And Shadow
Miroku sat up suddenly, breath shallow and fast. Sweat covered his brow, and he was soaking the sheets with it. God! It's so hot… He threw the sopping covers off of himself and looked over at his beautiful wife as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slipped into some boots, proceeding to get dressed. Sango lay, in uneasy slumber, curled up in the sheets of a bed next to his. Inuyasha and Kagome were gone.A dull boom echoed away from downstairs along with faint shouts and the unmistakable roaring of an angry Inuyasha. Miroku looked worriedly out into the hallway. He was still hot, and yearned for a breath of fresh air, but there was so much commotion out front that Miroku decided to go out the back door. I remember seeing it a while back…where is it
He stumbled in a feverish daze down the hall, took a turn, and found himself gazing down the back stair well to the doors that led outside. The doors were flung wide open, and thick, fluffy white chunks of snow were building up on the bottom few steps; the door on the other side of the short covered-path that led into the cathedral was wide open as well. An ominous and oppressing feeling of dread was building up in Miroku's stomach.
Kagome.
"What- the hell's- going on- Mother Kaede!" Inuyasha growled as he hurled all his body weight and strength at the damaged double doors over and over again. "Why -aren't- they- leaving!"
"I don't know!" Kaede cried over a loud and particularly frightening roar outside that shook the convent house from its old rooftop to its ancient foundation. "They are either really strong and resisting the power of the Holy Spirit, or they are really dumb and intent upon their own deaths. Either way, if they keep this up, there won't be a door to push against for long! Keep it up, Inuyasha!"
I will, you old hag… But not for your safety, Inuyasha thought grimly, his mind turning back to the girl whom he loved. I do this for Kagome; I will die no for no war or victory save for Kagome. I will die for my love.
"Inuyasha, why are you slowing? Quit worrying about that girl, she's fine! Right now, she is probably safe up in the sick ward, sleeping away. If you don't use all your effort, you endanger her!"
"I know, bitch! Leave me be!" Inuyasha bellowed angrily, throwing himself at the door so hard his shoulder began to bleed. Kagome, please be asleep; please…
"Naraku, where are you?" Kagome called sweetly in a singsong voice as she reached the door in the narthex that led to stairs to the upper floor and the left bell-tower. "I'm coming…Naraku!" She was in a dream, a beautiful dream, and all about her was silver mist, and she followed this winding staircase all the way up to heaven, a Tower of Babel in Heinrich.
Up and up, around and around this spiral stair, small stained glass windows passed her by as she moved higher, closer to the roof, and Naraku. She could not feel the chill from the storm as she went higher, not realize anything going on around her; this fantasyland she was in was all that mattered to her now.
Miroku ran into the cathedral, stood in the nave, in the center aisle between the pews that led up to the altar area behind a great wooden screen, and down the other way to the narthex. He ran to the center of the nave, where the arm-like chapels of the cathedral branched, one on the north side and one on the south.
The dome of the cathedral rose above him, its golden underside dull and bleak in the night, with only scattered candelabra as light, keeping most of the painted ceiling in darkness. The light from the stained glass windows was faint and pale, moonlight in a darkened world. Kagome couldn't possibly see where she was going, but that made no sense… she should be somewhere in the nave, but she wasn't. Where did she go?
"Okay, so the altar area is sealed off… what do I do now? Wait a minute! The narthex! That's where she should be!" Miroku ran down the central aisle, and into the low-ceilinged entrance-area to the cathedral; but Kagome wasn't here either. He looked around frantically, peering into the dark, and noticed a door at the far north end, slightly ajar and opening upon a dark stairwell.
"Would she go up there in this weather?" Miroku asked himself worriedly, going through the doorway and running up the spiral stairs that went higher and higher into the left bell-tower. But he couldn't see her.
"Kagome! Kagome, where are you?"
Kagome wasn't even in the bell-tower at this point. She walked right out onto the snow-enshrouded, column-supported balcony-walk between the two bell-towers. In this silver dream on top of the cathedral, she waltzed over to the banister looking eastward over the village. And here, amidst the wind and snow that now came down in a blinding cloud, great red and black wings, cloaked with snow to look like those of angels', spread wide and swept a great wind downward, and Naraku was their owner. So he hovered, awaiting her, and as she stepped forward, he smiled a kind, yet oddly victorious smile, and whispered like the wind.
His voice flowed around her like a calm breeze, and se heard, in many different, soft tones, "You made it, Kagome…. I am so very glad… Now… take my hands…" He held them outward to her, floating closer to the balcony, but not close enough for her to just reach out and grasp. Kagome came as close as she could though, standing upon the icy railing without a care, leaning outward without worry, arms outstretched, expecting to be grasped.
"Naraku, I can't reach you!" she wailed in disappointment. "Ah!" In a sudden gust, she stumbled off the slippery railing and back onto the balcony, landing on her back. "Ouch!"
"Kagome? Kagome, come to me!" Naraku cooed with a note of urgency. "Leap out, and I will catch you! Trust me!"
Kagome was painfully jolted out of her dream world. She woke, cold and nearly naked, clothed only in a thin nightgown, upon the narrow, soaring walkway between the two bell-towers, in a blazing snowstorm. And there, like an angel, flew Naraku, calling her, awaiting her. She stood up nervously, looking over the balcony's edge, down to the snow-covered ground, which must have been at least two hundred feet down. She felt nauseous, and her vision blurred.
"Come to me Kagome!" Kagome looked up at Naraku, ten feet away, flying. She gasped.
"W-what? Are you crazy! Fly closer!"
"I can't if want to stay in the air; for my wings will collide with the balcony and I shall fall. But if you jump, I shall catch you!"
"How do I know you can!" Kagome cried above the roar of wind and snow. "What promise can you give me?"
"I promise you nothing except safety from the vampire Inuyasha!"
Kagome looked pleadingly into Naraku's amethyst eyes, and he looked back into her own eyes, and he smiled a warm, trusting smile. "Kagome, in our brief relationship, have I ever led you astray?"
"I-I'm not sure…"
"How much has Inuyasha led you astray?"
"Well, one time he led me on top of a barn's roof and showed me a sunset when we were eleven, but then he pushed me off into a hay cart. I don't think I've ever forgiven him for that! Now I'm deathly afraid of heights! The cliff outside of town scared me bad enough…"
"Kagome, I swear to you that I won't let you die tonight!" Naraku said seriously. "Please, this is the only way! If you cannot trust me and I cannot trust you, how can we be friends? How can I protect you?"
"I don't know!" Kagome wept. "I wish this was easier…"
A land of blackness, shadows and fire, and she was running, running, running after a flitting shape, just out of her grasp. She couldn't distinguish who it was at first; fire and smoke clogged her view. But as she drew near, she could make it out. She ran faster with anxiety, caught the figure, and stopped him. She lifted up his chin, forcing him to look at her, and when he did, she died.
Sango woke with a start sitting up violently, screaming insanely. "Morshin marsi harmenm bedwos delosta iurin tus nardin-" she roared on and on in this language none on earth could understand. Her body convulsed violently, and she rocked back and forth for full five minutes before stopping in a sitting position, breathing hard, and crying.
"Kohaku!" she wept. "Kohaku…." She wiped her eyes on the bed sheets, and sniffled a little, sighing. She glanced around her; the room was absolutely empty. And Miroku was gone, clothes, boots and all. Inuyasha was as well, and Kagome…All her stuff was still by her bed...Maybe she went to the bathroom… Inuyasha can handle himself… A loud boom and more angry voices, the loudest Inuyasha's. Obviously…But Miroku…He's still injured! Where did he go!
"Miroku? Miroku?" Sango decided to go husband hunting. She stood up, threw on a light overcoat and a pair of feminine boots, and stepped out into the hallway. Her first inclination was to go to the foyer. So she went to the stairwell, and looked down, seeing Inuyasha, a group of tired, gasping nuns, a priest, and Mother Kaede holding the fragile old doors closed as best they could while dark shapes moved on the other side, trying to get in.
She paled in fear as she saw demonic hands, bloody and scaly, slipping in through gaps in the quickly deteriorating barrier that kept all who were inside safe. She turned green as she saw the nun who piloted the horse-and-cart ripped through a tiny gap, blood spraying everywhere; the nuns moved as far away from that hole as they could, only to have one or two more ripped through at other holes. Screams of terror and desperate prayers rose with the acrid smell of death and the coppery smell of blood. Some of the nuns vomited on the floor, while others fainted.
The defenses were almost gone, and Inuyasha, the only man there who was able to help, held the doors as best he could, his shoulder bleeding profusely. He hurled himself bodily at the door, and the demons on the other side pushed back, shaking the whole building, and the candle-lit wooden chandelier in the foyer swung back and forth precariously crashing to the ground and splintering into sharp chunks. One bounced and flew into a nun's head, killing her instantly; and she was a very young nun, too.
"Oh my God…" Sango whispered, tears going down her cheeks.
"Kagome… She isn't anywhere…" Miroku murmured to himself softly. "How…how did she disappear on us?" He was in the topmost room of the bell tower, above the bells themselves, and four windows on each of the four walls allowed in no light except for the meager moonlight that sailed in the clouds of the storm. It was so cold up here; yet dozens of birds and scattered bats roosted up here in the winter, and the ceiling was alive with their movement; it was rather chilling.
Miroku sighed, and went to look out the windows that faced south. Low and behold, as he looked out, he beheld Kagome, below him, in the center of the narrow, mainly ornamental crosswalk between the bell towers, and she was weeping, talking to a dark angel.
"Wait… That's no angel… That's Count Naraku!" Miroku cried in disbelief. "Oh good God, he's after Kagome! What'll I do, what'll I do!" Then it hit him; Tell Kagome! He flung open the narrow shutters of the tall windows, leaned out as far as he dared, and bellowed upon the wind.
"KAGOME! GET AWAY FROM THE VAMPIRE! GET AWAY!"
Kagome looked up at him; he grinned and waved, then repeated his message: "KAGOME! GET AWAY FROM THE VAMPIRE!"
"I WILL!" Kagome shouted back, a little relieved. She looked at Naraku and said to him, "Miroku says I must get away from Inuyasha; he must know that Inuyasha is a vampire."
"He is a theologian, and a very smart one," Naraku cooed in agreement. "There has never been a more intelligent choice; now, Kagome! Jump into my arms!"
"Okay," Kagome said, slowly getting into a standing position on the balcony's rail. "All I have to do is jump to you…a ten foot distance…over a ravine whose bottom is two-hundred feet down… I must be crazy…" Kagome was now balancing precariously on the ledge, and, as Miroku watched his heart pounded faster, and his eyes widened.
"What are you doing, Kagome?" he cried. "Don't go to him! He's the vampire! HE is the vampire!" But it was no good; the same wind that carried his voice to her was now drowning it and flinging it back at him. Naraku looked into Miroku's eyes, a smirk of victory on his twisted face, and his eyes flashed red. Miroku gulped. "Oh no…He's controlling this storm…"
Kagome clenched her fists, staring across to Naraku over that ten-foot span. She counted down.
"Five…" she squatted. Naraku moved the slightest bit closer; Miroku in his balcony leaned farther out, wailing at the top of his lungs, but she still couldn't hear him.
"Four…" She glanced down that great drop, a crowd of demons at the feet of the cathedral. She gulped, and her palms grew sweaty; she shut her eyes, and saw a fiery abyss.
"Three…" Miroku was leaning precariously out of that window, his hands the only thing hold him from falling; the world was now absolutely silent to her, no voices, no nothing.
"Two…" Thoughts of everything that happened in the village up to this point ran through her head, and she saw before her Inuyasha, shimmering palely like a ghost. And then, he faded, laughing, his hair turning silver and his eyes turning gold. She knew what she had to do.
"One…" She jumped.
"Inuyasha" Sango cried, running down the stairs to help her friend. "What's going on! What's happening?" The man just stared at her in shock, forgetting about the door until it was hit hard enough to knock him in his sore shoulder.
"Ouch! Sango! Come here and help me hold the door." Sango came over, and pushed on the door's right side, Inuyasha on the left side. The door's convulsions when banged by the demons on the other side were less intense, and Inuyasha was grateful for Sango's help; he no longer needed to hurl himself at the doors.
"Where's- Kagome?" he asked in between booms. "How's- Miroku?"
"Miroku-is- fine," Sango answered exhaustedly. "I-didn't- see-him-when-I-woke-up-and-Kagome-wasn't-there-either. I-think-she-was-in-the-bathroom-but-I'm-not-sure."
"WHAT!"
"Is-there-something-wrong-Inuyasha?" Sango asked, looking over at the dark, shadowy figure with huge blazing aura.
"Sir Inuyasha! It is most unwise to go and stop holding the doors, especially when so many of my sisters are dying around you; now get ye steely butt back to holding the doors!" Mother Kaede yelled angrily as she tossed more holy water and holy oil at the doors.
"SHUT UP!"
"KAGOME!" Miroku yelled as he watched Kagome leap out to Naraku, miss, and disappear over the edge. Then, Naraku disappeared too.
"No…"
Kagome had leapt, and realized in midair that she would not make it to Naraku. He stomach convulsed and she fell, an ear-shattering scream lifting from her lips, torn away by gravity. As she fell, she saw before the flitting form of Naraku flying, and, twenty feet above the ground, he caught her in his arms.
"See? I told you I'd catch you," he smiled as they soared up higher and higher, winding around the bell-tower; Kagome felt herself slipping away into her dream world again, the silvery cloud of bliss surrounding her as they spiraled up and up. "Deus vult," she whispered dreamily. "That is-well, you know… us…" Kagome felt her cheeks burning, but with love or fever she did not know. Suddenly, around them fell multi-colored shards, tinkling and glistening in the darkened moonlight.
"Do you see that rain?" Naraku asked.
"It can't be rain," Kagome whispered softly. "Wasn't it just snowing a while ago?" She looked up into his face, and she smiled. "I think you'll tell me though," she giggled.
"It's the glass from the rose window," Naraku answered as they flew past the spot where that great circular window had been; it was devoid of all but a few shards of glass along the edges.
"H-how did that happen?" Kagome gasped in awe; she peered through that yawning cavern, down into the nave of the church as they flew by.
"When you screamed on the way down, your voice hit the highest note a human can muster, and it shattered with a great sound wave; the glass was blown both inward and outward at the same time, and now the cathedral's floor shines like a rainbow." Naraku peered deeply into her eyes. "Your voice is absolutely beautiful, Kagome…likened to that of the angels in Heaven's halls."
"Oh, f'shaw!" she blushed, hitting him rather hardly on the face in embarrassment. "You say that to all the girls, don't you?"
"Yes, but this time I mean it!" Naraku laughed. "Trust me, Kagome, I've heard them; and you are a fallen angel in my eyes." He gazed at her again, and Kagome gazed back into those amethyst voids, at once both haunted and enchanted.
Miroku watched as the vampire-count flew around the bell-tower, rising up to be near his window. Miroku leaned outward, counting, timing the nightmare's flight. As the vampire passed his window, Miroku jumped out, and barely caught the vampire's foot; Naraku paid him no attention, however, being too caught up swooning Kagome senseless, literally.
The vampire obviously knew he was there, but considered him no threat, taking Miroku along for the ride instead. The theologian was in no position to do anything anyway; he was now hanging from Naraku's foot, dangling over a hundred feet in the air, and they were not going to stop until they reached Schloss Nachtigall.
Now what have I gotten myself into? Miroku wondered.
All of a sudden, the violent beatings the doors took at the hands of the demons stopped. The dark shapes disappeared, and an ominous silence was all that was left in the wake.
"Is it…over?" Inuyasha whispered, peering through a gap in the door; he saw nothing, and it even looked like the snowstorm was over. Inuyasha opened the doors wide, and stepped out onto the stoop of the convent house; the remaining nuns, Priest Totosai, Mother Kaede, and Sango behind him.
The village was quiet; too quiet. All that was heard was the wind. Inuyasha walked boldly out into the middle of the dead front garden, laughed, did a goofy dance which involved shaking his butt a lot and biting his thumb, but nothing happened still.
"They must have left," he said loudly, "because if it was like usual, I'd be dead now, right?"
"Well, I think we were the lucky ones," Sango murmured, her eyes on other things. "Just look in the street!" And as the moon broke the clouds, the scene of carnage that waited was revealed.
Lying in the street were the half-eaten bodies of dozens of men, women, and children, all left right in front of the cathedral grounds, some bodies in snow-covered piles, others lying in crimson slush. Sango was heard retching, and then the rest went and vomited in the bushes, coughing up the fear and anxiety they had lived with for so long; for now, it seemed it was over, along with the lives of every being and fool in Heinrich.
"This is what I feared," Kaede, muttered, walking out to stand next to the shocked young man. "This is what I tried to avoid by not burying Shippo…We knew for a long time that Count Naraku would eventually get sick of us, his wretched subjects… If only they had listened when I told them to leave…every single summer…but now I'm too late…" The old woman covered her face with her hands and wept, hard and long, collapsing onto the ground in a shuddering heap of bloody black robes.
"This is not even my own blood, but the blood of my sisters…whom I lost in our battle for safety… And now it's over…it's all over." Kaede gasped and sighed, shuddering some more, before pulling herself together.
"There's nothing that we can do now except bury them," Kaede whispered. "Deus vult. God wills it, it seems. Let us start the process…"
"WAIT!" cried one of the nuns, pointing down the street. "Look! Who is that man?" In the moonlight, Sesshomaru's silver head glistened, and in his right arm he held his daughter, in his left he held a sword. Jaken was clutching his leg, weeping in thanks, and over. "Oh thank you, Lord Sesshomaru, thank you!"
Inuyasha smiled and ran over to him. "Brother! I thought you were dead!"
"Likewise," Sesshomaru said, breaking his usual coldness and embracing his brother as best he could while Rin clutched to him, sobbing. "Twice, even. I saw the fire through a window from the Wolf's Den; apparently you lived through that, but you only took an extra ten years off my life.
"Then, with what happened tonight, I lost twenty more. I will die tomorrow at this rate. Oh, but my dear brother Inuyasha, how glad I am to see you!" Sesshomaru pulled back, weeping from joy; it shocked Inuyasha senseless. "You are the last thing in this world I know for sure is alive, besides Rin." Jaken let out a loud and indignant "HEY!" at this.
"How did you live?" Inuyasha asked in awe, gazing at Sesshomaru's bloody clothes.
"Well, when the demons came, I could hear them downstairs; I grabbed this sword, the Tenseiga. Our father gave it to me, for defense against death. Used it against the demons; they fell quickly to it. Apparently when father had it blessed by a bishop and forged by a holy order he knew what was going to happen, but how I do not know. But, I managed to hold them off at the door to our room; Rin was sent to hide in the closet with Jaken and a few crucifixes. It helped too; the demons did not find them.
"And yet…I saw so many die, Inuyasha… It isn't pretty at all; I could have save many, but I chose to save only my daughter and myself instead. Petty, no? Alas the cruelty of this world; I lost my wife, my parents, and I almost lost my dear little brother." Sesshomaru calmed himself down, and resumed his normal, serious look.
"Was that a one-time thing?" Inuyasha asked, looking at Sesshomaru with a slanted glance.
"Yes; it'll happen next at your funeral."
"Don't come," Inuyasha said seriously.
"I won't waste my time," Sesshomaru smirked, patting Inuyasha's shoulder. "But I have a more important message for you. It's from Kouga."
"What?"
"And Myoga."
"WHAT?"
End of Chapter 11
A/N: Woe for you, because I'm so mean! lol…Okay… now to work on Carol of the Bells chapter 4!
Nowfor the...Poll: Is this action-packed and exciting enough for you? Si o No at the beginning of your reviews, please! LOVE THIS STORY OR NOT? Come on, be honest…puhhleazze?