* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"You okay?" Koga asked, tapping me on the shoulder.
"Yup." I answered, leaning back. Then something clicked. "Hey, why doesn't Julian. . . er. . . my father. . . take the position for himself?"
"He doesn't want it." The Elder said instantly while I blushed like crazy because he'd seen me hug Koga. "He says it's time for somebody new to come into power. Er, Susan, did you say your name was?"
"Yeah." I said, looking at him.
"Your father would like to see you. He said that if we should come across his daughter, he would very much like to meet with her."
I nodded, suddenly determined.
"Yeah, I'll see him." I said in a strong voice. "I'll meet with him, alright. And when I do, I'm going to make him tell me why he left me and my mom eight years ago! He at least owes me an explanation, God dammit!"
* * * * *
As it turned out, I would have to wait a long time to meet my father. I very long time. The Elder told me that he would have to go back to the Southern Region where Julian. . . my father. . . was so he could tell him that I was alive and would meet with him. And then he would have to track me down again so he could tell me the news and get a date and time from me. After that, the Elder would have to run back to the south to cross-check it with Julian. . . Dad?. . . and come back to pick me up if it would be a good time. If it wouldn't, then off he would go again to tell me when Julian. . . Daddy?. . . could meet me. And then I would have to make the actual journey itself from where ever I was to where Julian. . .God dammit, why couldn't I decide on something to call him?!. . . to where he was.
Kinda a lot of running for such an old wolf. I thought as he ran off into the distance. Then I sighed and sank down onto a log, completely spent. All of my sudden spunk was gone, replaced with even more exhaustion then before. I'd had worse, thought. There had been nights, particulary the ones of the half-way waned moon, where my head spun and the back of my skull pounded like a jackhammer whenever I stood up or moved but I didn't dare to sleep, lest some demon found and tried to kill me.
Koga didn't seem to be aware of this fact that I had less than a few minutes of sleep once every month.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Do you need anything?"
I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to make me forget that we were now technically in competition to be the leader of the Wolf-Demon Tribe. I forced out a laugh.
"Yeah. I need a giant cup of mocha, my mom to be back, animals to stop speaking English, and this whole nightmare to be over." then I sighed. "Damn, why can't things just be normal around me? Why is it always me who all the weird things happen to? Why not Ellie or Heidi or Derik or Taylor for once? It's my life that's all fucked up and nobody even knows the half of what's going on. I know what happens to Derik and the others, but I can never tell them what happens to me!"
I hadn't meant to tell him that much. In fact, I had planned to stop at "and this whole nightmare to be over.", but sometimes things just slip out to people I barely know. It happens on the Internet, at school (though nobody really listens to me there), when I'm just talking to Ruby, and now apparently guys I just met less than a week ago.
"Huh? You lost me." Koga admitted, crossing his arms.
I groaned.
"You don't want to know what I mean." I told him.
"Great! I would have just walked away if you hadn't gotten that far! So now will you tell me what's up?"
"It's not a story I like to. . . I mean, it's really long and you'd probably get really bored anyway. Besided, why do you care about what happened to me when I was a kid? It's not like it's really any of your buisness, right?"
Koga growled in exhasperation.
"Look, I'm not sure how to say this, but I think I might be taking a liking to you. So would you just hurry up and tell the damn story already?!"
I looked down at the ground.
"I don't know why you're so damn determined to find out, but if you really want to know, then I guess it's your own choice.
"I guess it all began before I was born. . ."
* * * * *
Koga
* * * * *
Susan may have been a half-demon and technically my rival, but when that girl got to telling a story, it was like nothing else existed. It was a little weird at first, looking at her there with her eyes shut as though to block out any other sight but the one playing in her mind's eye, but after a few minutes, I wasn't looking at Susan anymore. I was seeing everything happening before me as thought I was there with everything happening.
Before I knew it, nothinng else existed but a young sorceress called Taylor and the original young leader of the Wolf-Demon tribe that I now led. At first Susan was saying things like "I guess it all began before I was born." But then it just transformed to like it was Taylor and Julian talking.
"My mom used to tell me a story. I never believed it, since it just sounded too extraordinary, but now I'm starting to wonder. . ."
* * * * *
Taylor
* * * * *
Ever since I was a young girl I've known that I posessed supernatural powers.
They could never be compared to the conrtolled, pure powers of a priest or priestess. It was more like witch craft or the dark arts. My powers had always been tainted. And for that, the villagers hated me. They called me a curse. A mistake. A flaw in the natural order of things. Even my own mother hated my very existance.
My grandmother didn't, though. She always loved me.
Grandma used to tell me stories about her old country. Of the land flowing rich with peace. Where people like me could hide their abnormalities and never be found out. She said that girls were starting up a revolution so they could be equal to men. She told me that women could wear pants and not get in trouble, and they didn't have to stay silent and submissive all of the time. And that girls could learn what I'd always yearned for. To learn to read.
My mother used to call her a crazy old fool. That she'd gone to sleep one night and never left her dreams. But she was wrong. I'd seen the truth in Grandma's eyes. Such a place really did exist.
When I tried to picture it, though, I just never could get it right. I never could fully picture girls in the comfy blue pants that were called "Jeans" and a world where young women wore their hair short and bobbed. Eventually, I just say a bunch of kids like me. Kids who were different and strange. I tried to see girls reading what were called books, and boys allowing it, I really did. I think I may have come close. But I was never fully satisfied with what I saw.
It all happened one day when I was out in the fields.
My mother had sent me out of the village to gather flowers. I was a young girl at sixteen, but like my mother, I had a very womanly figure. Because of always being told to stay silent and to follow instructions without question, I was very soft-spoken. You could hardly ever hear me talk, and I knew that the other girls didn't have it half as hard as I did. If I made one unnecessary peep, my parents would yell and scream themselves horse.
Anyhow, Mother needed flowers to give to my father for their anniversery, and she was too busy cooking and cleaning house to even thing of pretting the house up a bit, so she had sent me out deep into the woods to where the nicest flowers were.
I was free in the woods. I could sing and dance and nobody could tell me to be silent or to stay still and hurry up with my task.
Laughing, I danced around the patch of flowers, smiling and plucking them neatly out of the ground. My Kimono was billowing out around me, and my clear voice sang secret tunes that only I knew. Of course, my moment of freedom and glory could not last.
At that moment, a Worm-Demon rose up above the bushes, towering above my head and looking down at me literally the way you would look at a steak. "I thought I heard a human around here!" he announced, rearing up.
Oh, Gods. . . I thought in dispair, staring up at the beast.
"G-go away, Demon!" I shouted, showing much more confidence than I felt. "My father is just off in the forest hunting. The instant I scream, he will come running and he shall kill you for trying to harm me!"
To my dismay, the demon just started to laugh.
"Your father is not near. Nobody is!" he announced, crawling closer to me. Still clutching the flowers, I backed up and promptly tripped over a loose root behind me, twisting my ankle. My arms flew out around me, and I screamed as I fell to the ground. Looking up, I saw in the demon's eyes that he was going to eat me. There was no mercy in those cold, black eyes of his. He was hungry, and I was meerly a meal to keep him alive.
The Worm-Demon lunged at me! I screamed again and rolled out of his way, nearly avoiding being grabbed up by his grasping hands!
"Oh, Gods, help me!" I cried out as the Demon turned my way.
At that moment, though, a figure came running out of the woods. With one, two, three kicks to the demon's fat midsection, he tore open it's belly and sent it hurling into the distance. Then he turned to face me, and I gasped.
Another Demon!
This one was what I had heard the villagers gossiping about but had never seen before. A Demon that appeared as a Human. This young man, thought incredibly handsome and amazing, was no different. His finger nails were sharpened into claws, and his ears were pointed like a wolf's. I had known that there was a newly-forming tribe of Wolf-Demons nearby, but I never thought that I would come into contact with one.
I let out a whimper of fear. This was very bad. If this Demon was hungry, then I was lunch.
* * * * *
Julian
* * * * *
There was no doubt about it, this Human girl was beautiful. There was some kind of aura about her that would repell humans, and my first thought was that she was some kind of sorceress. But looking at her, there was no kind of evil in her eyes, just fear and lonelyness.
"P-please don't eat me," she whispered, still on her butt and trying to scoot away. "I-I don't think I'd taste very good."
It took me a moment to track what she was saying. There were some Wolf-Demons who ate humans, thought I'd never really liked the taste myself. I laughed.
"Don't worry about it." I told her, reaching my hand down to help her up. "I don't think you'd taste very good, either. I've never really liked the taste of Humans, to tell you the truth."
The girl forced a smile and reached up to take my hand. I pulled her to her feet, but she instantly began to fall back down.
"Yaaah!" she screamed as I caught her. "O-Oh! T-thanks!"
"Are you alright?" I asked, surveying her closely.
"I-I think I twisted my ankle when I fell." she admitted as I sat her down on a rock. "Hey, that's two times that you've saved me, huh?"
"Sure. I guess so." I said. "Here, how about I help you back to your village-"
"NO!" she cried, shocking me. "No, no, NO! Very bad idea! My parents will kill me for hurting myself!"
"But it's not your fault." I said, frowning.
"I know. But you think my parents will see it that way? My mother will say that I deliberately hurt myself to get out of helping around the house, and my father's going to think that I'm making it all up! I can't go back home with my ankle like this! Besides, my village hates demons! They see me walking up with you helping me, they're going to freak! They get any more dirt on me, they're going to banish me. They already think I'm causing the rice to fail and my neighbor's pigs to die. Gods, they think I actually know how to control my powers!"
I frowned.
"So what're you going to do?" I asked the girl, crossing my arms.
"I. . .I don't know." she said, not meeting my eyes. "I really don't know."
We were silent for a few minutes. Then I said rather aquwardly:
"Hey, I don't even know your name. Mine's Julian."
The girl smiled at me.
"I'm Taylor." she said, pulling her ankle onto her lap so she could survey the damage.
"Tay-lor?' I asked, trying the strange word out. "That's a strange name." I said, kneeling down and taking her foot so I could see for myself. "Ouch. That's going to bruise up nicely."
"Yeah." she said, wincing as I felt her ankle, looking for broken bones. "I thought so. And as for my name, my grandmother named me. Now she got a freaky name. Her name is Nicole. And she has people call her Nickey."
I laughed again.
"That is a weird name." I said, looking around and grabbing up some long leaves. "Tell you what. Since I can't take you back home, I'll at least bandage this sucker up for you so you can walk. Sound good?"
"Sure." Taylor said, watching me with interest as I wrapped the leavees tightly around her foot and ankle. "You know, you're awful nice for a demon." she added lightly.
I frowned.
"You think so?" I asked.
"Yeah. I mean, how many other demons would help me out like this? I sure haven't heard any stories of guys like you."
"I guess you're right." I admitted with a sigh. "Damn, I need to toughen up if I'm going to keep my title."
"Your title?"
"Yeah. I just happened to found the Wolf-Demon Tribe in this area." I tole her, tying up the leaves.
Taylor stared at me.
"What?! But you're my age! And the amount of Wolf-Demons in this area is huge! How did you. . ."
"You just have to know how to say things right." I told her, helping her to gather up the flowers she'd dropped.
We didn't say anything for a long time. But when Taylor had enough flowers, she turned to look at me, a pleading expression in her eyes.
"Hey, Julian? Can I see you again? It gets pretty lonely in the village when everybody hates you for living."
I looked at her. At her flawless skin and her beautiful blue eyes. Her hair was blond and curly. It was so unlike anything else I'd ever seen. I felt my heart rising in my throat. She was so young and vulnerable.
"Sure." I said, trying to keep a neutral voice. "If you want to."
Taylor looked like she could have kissed me then and there.
* * * * *
Koga
* * * * *
"What happened next?" I asked as Susan's voice trailed off and the images vanished from my mind.
She shrugged.
"Taylor and Julian kept seeing eachother for another year. Eventually, Taylor's parents found out. They were livid. I think they would have killed her if her grandmother hadn't stepped in and stole her away. She told Taylor to run away from the village as fast as she could. She told her to get Julian and find a dry well at the base of the mountains. She said to jump in. She gave her a letter to read once they climbed back out." Susan smiled. "She'd tought Taylor how to read in secret. Once they got to the other side, Taylor read the letter about the new time she was in. She thought it was insane."
I felt a small smile playing on my face.
"So they eloped?" I asked, enjoying the thought.
"Yep. After about a month, they got married, and a year later, Taylor got pregnant for me." Susan's face became relaxed. "A lot has changed. Woman have equal legal rights as men, even thougth most people are still really sexist. But people don't believe in demons anymore, at least not the real kind. So it was easier for me to blend in."
"And nobody ever knew that you're a half-Demon?" I asked, shocked.
At that, Susan scowled.
"Yeah. One person figured out the truth. The Crazy Cat Lady. Her husband and kids were killed by starving Wolf-Demons, and she hates us. She always seemed to hold a grudge against my family. She's always calling us into the cops and she shouts all this rude, vulgur stuff at me." Susan grinned. "I get my revenge, though. I Silly-Stringed her house last Halloween and ditched the cans in her backyard. I word gloves, too, so they couldn't trace any finger prints back to me. You should have heard her shout in the morning! The lady was livid! Her cats were even going nuts! She blamed me, of course, but nobody could ever prove it, and I don't even think the cops really followed up on it. They probably figured it was about time I did something back at the old hag."
I pictured a crazy old lady surrounded by cats, shouting her head off because the goopy stuff that Susan had called "Silly String" was coating her house and yard. The lady and cats looked like they were singing in a chorus. I laughed out loud.
"I can picture that." I said through the laughter. "I can picture that very clearly."
Susan smiled, a deep exhaustion begining to bulid behind her eyes.
"Yeah. Koga, I'm going to bed, alright? It's been a long day, and I'm not going to sleep tomorrow night."
With that, she began the walk to the abandoned cabin that we had found.
I followed her, trying to spark a conversation.
"So. . . Do you have any friends back home?"
"Yeah. There's Ellie; she's the one whose penguin named Pizlop is her brain. Tyler and Taylor are twins, and Ty's gay. He's so fuckin' funny!" I saw tears in her eyes. "Heidi's like our shrink cuz we're always unloading ourselves on her. And Derik's the awesome guy. He's like my brother." Her voice trailed off. "I wonder..."
"What?" I asked, looking down at her.
"I wonder if I'll ever see them again. If I get this position, I might never. . . I might never get to go back home. . ."
Bad topic I thought, wincing at my own blunder.
"You'll get to see them again!" I said bracingly, wrapping my arm around her. "Gods, what would keep you from seeing them?"
Susan smiled. She didn't call my bluff, but she should have. She knew as well as I did that it would be years before she could even think about going back.
Humans. I thought ruefully. You go away for a while and they totally forget about you! Poor kid. I added in thought, cocking my head. She's still so young, but she's got to deal with all of this bull crap.
It was rediculious to land all of this on somebody so young. I mean, she was even young by human standards! In our terms, she was a baby. I would never get how she was so. . . well. . . womanly, let's say.
I didn't realize when we got to the cabbin until we were walking up some steps and Susan was leaning up against me, her head against my chest and her eyes drooping with exhaustion.
"Hey, Koga?" she asked drowsily, her head falling onto my knee.
"Yeah, what?" I demanded, a little more than peeved out that she was leaning against me like that.
"You smell really nice." she said quietly. "Like the forest and wolves. I like it."
I didn't say anything for a while, until she started talking again.
"Hey, Koga?"
"What now?" I asked without any real annoyance in my voice.
"I think I like you." she admitted, and her head grew a little more heavy against me. "You're not such a bad guy, you know that?" she added before her breathing became even and her shoulders became relaxed.
"What?!" I demanded in a whisper, looking down at the sleeping girl. I didn't even come close to waking her, but I was worried that I might have. She moaned slightly and turned over, settling her head against my hip bone.
"Okay," I said uncomftorably, shifting a bit. Damn, the girl was out cold! "Time to move." I continued uselessly, pickng her up and settling her into the "sleeping bag" that she had brought along.
I tried to drift off myself, but thanks to Susan's help, my brain was buzzing with activity.
I think I like you. She'd said. You're not such a bad guy, you know that?
I think I like you. You're not such a bad guy.
You're not such a bad guy.
I think I like you.
I like you.
You know that?
No matter how many times I turned the words around in my head, they still said the same thing. But my question was this: Did she like me as just a friend, or did she like me as a male? Because if it was the latter, then there was bound to be trouble.
A thousand possibilites and scenarios played out in my head while I took off my chest plate, trying to get more comftorable.
Maybe she did like me.
Maybe I liked her.
Maybe she liked me but I didn't like her back.
Could it be that I liked her but she only liked me as a friend?
Was it that we were just friends?
What would Kagome say?
Damn, what would Hakkaku and Ginta say? In fact, where in hell were Hakkaku and Ginta? I hadn't seen them since I'd left for Susan's time when I'd smelled that filthy bastard Bankotsu in her well, meaning that he was in her house.
They probably thougth that we'd want some privacy, the idiots. I thought in disgust, not even being able to summon up the energy to roll my eyes. I slumped down against the wall, and was soon consumed with confusing dreams involving Susan, Bankotsu, kisses, and talking penguins and brainless girls.
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
I woke up in the middle of the night with my teeth chattering and the rest of me in no better shape. When had it gotten so cold during the night?!
Still shivering, I looked over at Koga and was mildly amused to see him in the exact same condition that I was in.
"C-c-c-cold enough f-f-f-for ya'?" I asked, forcing a smile.
Koga nodded once, and gestured across the cabbin at Hakkau and Ginta, who'd snuck in sometime during the night. They were cruled up next to each other, back to back and shaking like I would if a volcano was about to blow it's top. Smiling through lips that I was sure were blue, I took a couple of my larger and heavier blankets from my bag and draped them over the boys' sleeping forms.
Then, taking the rest of the blankets, I walked over to Koga and gave him a couple, meaning to keep the last for myself. Still trembling from the sudden chill, he shook his head and motioned for me to lay down next to him.
I'm sure, that as I lowered myself down, that the conflicts taking place behind my eyes was evident.
On one hand, I really wanted to sleep next to him. He was so sexy for one thing, and I would probably warm up faster if I was curled up next to somebody anyway, preferably if, as I'd told him when we got in, that somebody smelled nice and I liked them.
On the other, while I really didn't think that he'd try anything, I was wary of the contact that would occur, unleashing a new shiver of what could happen if we lost ourselves. I was not ready for a kid yet!
But, as I decided in the heat of the moment (so to speak, since there was no heat) I didn't really want to freeze, and neither, I was sure, did Koga. I pulled my pillow over along with the sleeping bag and unzipped it so we wouldn't be sleeping on a cold floor.
"Here." I offered, motioning for him to lay down on the blanketed side, having turned the shiny blue half to face the floor.
"G-g-good thinking." he aknowledged, moving to the far end on his side so I could curl up against his chest.
I smiled at the compliment and nodded in thanks, laying where I was sure he intended for me to sleep and pulling the heavy blankets up over us. Ruby slinked over to join us, laying down against my stomach and growling deep in her throat from the sudden heat.
As we started to warm up and I could talk without stammering, I asked Koga something I normally wouldn't have asked so late at night.
"Koga?" I murmered, keeping my voice low so I didn't wake Ginta and Hakkaku.
"Hmmm?" He asked, already drowsy.
"How come you came back to my time?"
Sighing, he gently, almost timidly, put his arm around my waist to draw me in closer.
"I was worried." he admitted as Ruby snuggled up closer to me. "I could smell those dead men, and I thought that you were in danger. I guess you weren't" He added with a growl in his voice. "But can you really blame me for worrying when you know their story?"
I shuddered, remembering Bankotsu's reputation of killing without a care in the world and Jakotsu's ugly history of slicing men he thought were cute into pieces while claiming that he loved them.
"Not really." I said, wrapping my arms around Ruby. "I'm just glad that you came when you did. The guy was really creeping me out. I think my lips are still bruised, but I really can't tell that well."
Koga seemed to take comfort in this, and he pulled me even closer.
"Do you like him?" he asked suddenly as I rested my head against his muscled chest.
"Hm? Who? Bankotsu?" I asked, not really caring. "Kinda'. I mean, he's really cute, and he can be nice when he wants to be, but in reality? I never get the boy for one thing, and for the other, I really don't think I'd want to go out with him since he's such a jerk. Why do you ask?"
"It's just my responsibility to make sure you're safe." Koga answered gruffly. "You're part of the pack now, so I've got to look out for you. We all care for one another."
"That's nice." I murmered. I started to hum Dreaming of You by Selena, which was my personal lullaby.
"What're you doing?" Koga asked.
"Oh, sorry." I appologized. "Am I keeping you up? Sorry, it's just kinda' the song I use when I'm trying to get back to sleep."
"No. . ." Koga whispered, snuggling me so close I could feel his collarbone and ribs. Holy shit, when had the dude taken the armor off?! "Keep going. I like it. . ." and with me humming away and the warmth of a each other surrounding us, Koga, Ruby, and I soon dozed back off.
* * * * *
"Thanks, Sis." Ginta said the next morning, handing my blankets back to me. "I think you saved our lives last night."
"Ah." I said, turning red and quickly putting them away. "It was nothing. I actually brought them back to share with you guys. I kinda' guessed that you wouldn't really have anything very warm for nights."
"So-o" Hakkaku said, sidling up to me. "You slept next to Koga last night?"
I groaned. I wasn't going to hear the end of this for a long time!
"Yes." I sighed. "I did sleep next to Koga last night, but nothing happened, and like Ginta said really, what were we supposed to do, freeze to death?"
The boys sighed.
"Darn." Ginta pouted.
"It'd have been so cool if we were the ones to report a scandal." Hakkaku added, copying Ginta's expression.
I laughed.
"Well, sorry to be such a fun-sucker." I said, swinging my bag over my shoulder.
"Hey." Koga greeted, walking into the newly cleaned hut. "I found some hot-springs nearby. They're seperated by these giant boulders."
"Oh!" I gasped, still chilled from the night before. "I think I need to take a bath!"
"Me, too!" Hakkaku said.
"Me three!" Ginta added.
Koga laughed.
"Well, count me in." he said, grinning at us like the lunatics we were.
Laughing, I grabbed up my warmest clothes (A black turtle-neck, a blood-red sweater, a sliver vest, and by heavest jeans), a towl, my icy shampoo and conditioner, and a blanket and followed Koga to the springs.
Koga was right in the sense that the springs were divided by towering boulders, so the guys left me to my own devices and left for the other side of the almost bubbling water. Trembling, I unbuttoned my shirt and wrapped my blanket tightly around me while I took the rest of my pajamas and underwear off. I didn't even bother with walking in, but just dropped the blanket and jumped into the water in one fluid motion. On the other side of the make-shift wall, I heard the guys pretty much doing the same thing. I dipped my bottles in the thaw out the liquids inside, and just stood there against some rocks, up nose-deep in hot water and loving every minute of it.
"Oh, wow." I whispered, enjoying the tingling if my feet and hands.
"Enjoying yourself?" Koga called over.
"Definately!" I shouted back. "I never want to leave it feels so nice! God, this is better than my bathtub at home!"
The guys laughed and I started to use my shampoo, feeling more alive than I had in ages.
* * * * *
"Your hair smells different." Koga told me that afternoon as snow started to fall. "Not bad, just different. What'd you put in it?"
"Huh?" I asked, pulling over a lock and sniffing it myself. "I don't know. Maybe I used my mom's Suave instenad of my VO5? I'm really not sure."
Koga nodded and frowned as he took a step foreword. He, Hakkaku, and Ginta had been pretty much forced to put on the fur leggings and coats that they were carrying around with them, and they weren't quite used to the feeling of the pants yet.
"How do you deal with these thing?" Hakkaku asked, pulling at a loose thread in his.
I laughed.
"You learn." I chuckled, shaking my head at the foolish wolf.
Ginta was looking at my jeans, a suddenly quizical look on his face.
"Those look even more uncomftorable than these things." he said. "What are they?"
I groaned.
"For your information, they're very comftorable since they're American Rag brand, and they're called jeans."
"They're so tight." Hakkaku commented, pinching some of the fabric at my butt.
"Hands off, you pervert!" I ordered, slapping his wrist and thinking that was the end of it. But at the same time, I heard a savage growl, and Koga was right there, pinning Hakkaku to a tree by his throat and his claws starting to dig into his throat.
"Don't. Touch. Her." he growled, baring his fangs.
"Whoa!" I said, trying to calm him down. "Koga! Dude! Chill!"
Koga didn't seem to have the patience to calm down at that moment, but he did release Hakkaku and let him crumple to the ground.
"Koga!" I scolded, planting my hands on my hips. "That was hardly necessary!"
Koga gave me a funny look.
"I didn't think girls liked having their butts pinched." he muttered, looking away.
I grimaced.
"Koga, I was handling it, okay? You don't need to come rushing to my defence every time some guy gets a little close to me." I frowned. "Though last night I could hardly blame you." I thought for a second. "Hey, did I ever thank you for that? For saving me from that murderous, brain-muddling jerk Bankotsu? Cuz if I didn't, then thank you."
Koga looked away, a blush rising on his face.
"Like I said, it was my responsibility."
Like hell, it was his responsibility. I thought rolling my eyes. Honestly, any one of my friends are better liars than Koga!
Then I smiled. Who cared if he was lying? Why he was lying to me, I couldn't be quite sure, but honestly, I didn't care. The feeling of his chest on my back was still burning on my flesh, and I wasn't about to freeze that night.
That night. . .
"Oh! Oh, I forgot!" I gasped, covering my mouth in horror.
"What?" Koga asked, looking at me in concern.
"I turn into a human tonight! I totally forgot!" I gasped. "Dammit! Of all nights to change!"
Koga laughed.
"Is that all? You had me worried." he said, clapping me on the back. "Don't worry. We'll protect you from the boogey men."
I looked up nervously with only my eyes.
"Really?" I asked, biting my lip. "Are. . . are ya' sure you want to? You don't mind?"
"Nah." Koga said. "We'll just do tonight what we did last night. I'll be so alert that a mouse on the other side of the field will wake me up!" he boasted, slamming his fist onto his chest.
"If you say so." I teased, giving him a sneaky smile. It was impossible to stay annoyed at Koga.
* * * * *
Koga
* * * * *
The half-Demon Susan was cute, but the human her wasn't too bad, either.
In the flash of light when the sun set, a very different girl stood before me.
This girl was blond with blue eyes. Her wolf ears were gone, replaced by human ears. Her claws receded into her hands, and somehow her eyes were softer, making her look fourteen for a change instead of twice of that. Actually, I knew that Susan was fourteen, a strange anamoly in half-Demons, to actually look one's actual age.
So this cute half-demon girl who no longer looked like a half-demon was looking at me nervously as though I was going to say something like:
"You're so weird. Get the hell away from me!"
Instead, I said in a very calm voice:
"Okay. So what were you so worried about?"
Susan smiled nervously.
"Honestly? I'm not really sure." she admitted. "Kinda' weird, huh?"
I nodded. Why on earth was she so freaked?
* * * * *
Bankotsu
* * * * *
I had to restrain myself very hard when Susan started sleeping next to Koga. Very hard.
And that night with the talking wolf and all that talk about Susan's father, well, I think that I almost exploded. He was hugging her?! Who did that wolf think he was, touching my woman like that?! Alright, I guess it had been a little creepy on my part to go and kiss her like I did, but that didn't mean that she had to go and cuddle up to somebody like Koga or. . . or go pressing flesh with him! And what had all that about Susan having some kind of blood claim mean? Was she next in line to rule the Wolf-Demon Tribe or something? I didn't know, and frankly I didn't really care at the moment. The only thing that mattered to me was getting Koga away from Susan so I could talk to her for a minute. Or go with plan B.
"Jakotsu." I muttered, looking on at the nervous human girl who had been a half-demon a few minutes before hand. "You know what to do."
"Aw." Jakotsu whined, pouting his highly-glossed lips. "Why do I have to do it, Bankotsu? Why not Renkotsu or Suikotsu?"
"'Cause I don't trust Baldy, and Suikotsu's that annoying doctor again. Renkotsu's trying to wake him up, but I want this done as soon as possible. So go, or I'll take away your Jakotsuto for a week."
Jakotsu pouted for another few seconds, but then he heaved a great sigh and pushed himself up.
"I guess there's no choice. Hey, maybe I'll get to see my InuYasha again, huh, Bankotsu!?" he asked, jogging off.
I rolled my eyes and focused on the Wolf-Demons again. I ground my teeth when, without any hesitation tonight, Susan and Koga got under the blankets that Susan carried around with her again and Susan actually rested her head agianst that damn wolf's shoulder.
Just calm down for a minute, Ban. I told myself. It'll all be over in an hour. Just hang in there for a bit longer.
I took a few deep breaths. Didn't work. I clenched my fists almost until my finger nails punctured my skin and the pain did focus me enough that I could hear Susan and Koga's whispered converstion.
"So. How do you like being human?"
Susan groaned.
"What do you think? It sucks. I hate it. I'm so weak. . ."
In the light of the fire that they'd actually bothered to make tonight, the girl's face glowed a cheery orange, thought her expression was anything but happy.
"Sorry." Koga whispered, tightening his arm around her waist. "Hey, do you think you could do that song again? It's really pretty."
"What, Dreaming of You?" Susan asked, her expression softening. "Um. . . how about I do Both Sides Now?"
"Is it nice?"
"It's my other sleeping song." Susan whispered, her pretty little lips spreading into a pleasured smile.
"M'kay." Koga murmered. "But sing the words."
"'Kay." Susan answered, taking a breath. I noticed that the other two Demons moved in a little closer.
Bows and flows of angel hair,
And ice cream castles in the air.
And feathered canyons everywhere,
I've looked at clowds that way.
But now they only block the sun.
They rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I could have done.
But clowds got in my way.
I've looked at clowds from both sides now,
From up and down and still somehow,
It's clowd's illustions I recall,
I really don't know clowds. . .
At all.
Moons and Junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes true.
I've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show.
You leave 'em laughin' when you go.
And if you care, don't let them know.
Don't give yourself away.
I've lookd at love from both sides now,
From give and take, and still somehow,
It's love's illusions I recall,
I really don't know love. . .
At all.
Tears and fears and feelin' proud,
To say 'I love you!" right out loud!
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds,
I've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange.
They shake their heads,
They said 'I've changed.'
Well, something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day.
I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and loose, and still somehow,
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life. . .
At all.
The forest seemed to quiet down as Susan's sweet, quiet, melodic alto voice somehow echoed through the clearing. Even I stopped breating. Somehow those simple lyrics hit home with me.
"Another song." A very drowsy Koga whispered, pulling her in even closer in the cold winter air. "Sing another, Suze."
Susan nodded and thought for a minute.
"Oh, I've got a really good one!" She announced, smiling.
How bout't a round of applause?
Ye-eah.
Standin' ovation.
Ooooo-whooa, yeah.
Yeah-eah-eah-eah-eah.
You look so dumb right now.
Standin' outside my house.
Trying to appologize, you're so ugly when you cry,
Please. Just cut it out.
Don't tell me you're sorry cuz' you're not,
Baby, when I know you're only sorry you got caught.
But you put on quite a show-ow,
Really had me goin',
But now it's time to go
Curtain's finally closin'
That was quite a show.
Very entertainin'
But it's over now.
(But it's over now.)
Go on and take a bow.
Grab your clothes and get gone
(Get gone, get gone)
You better hurry up before the sprinklers come on.
Talkin' 'bout 'girl, I love you, you're the one.
This just looks like I re-run'.
Please,
What else is on?
Don't tell me you're sorry cuz' you're not,
Baby, when I know you're only sorry you got caught.
But you put on quite a show-ow,
Really had me goin',
But now it's time to go
Curtain's finally closin'
That was quite a show.
Very entertainin'
But it's over now.
(But it's over now.)
Go on and take a bow.
Oh, when the
Award for
The best of life
Goes to you
(goes to you)
Formakin' me
That you
could be
faithfill to me,
let's hear your speeches. . .
She kept on like that for a while, singing the rest of the song and putting the boys to sleep and then, after a few minutes, she fell out, too.
* * * * *
Susan'
* * * * *
It seemed that I had just fallen asleep when I was awakened by the howling of wolves in the distance. Koga had just pushed himself up, his arm around my waist falling away.
"Wha?" I asked, still in my strange dream about me in a pink dress at homecoming on a double-date with me and Koga along with Tyler and Jakotsu. "Wassgoinon?" I demanded, meaning to say "What's going on?"
"The wolves." Koga muttered, shivering despite the fur pants and the heat from the fire. "They're in trouble. We've got to go and. . .But you can't. . . Hakkaku! Ginta! With me! Susan, I really hate to do this, but you'll have to stay here by yourself for a while. It won't be too long, so just stay here with the fire. I'm sure it's nothing, but we've still got to go and check it out."
"Right." I said, a little resentful that despite the face I was human, he was still leaving my behind. "Well, I won't totally be alone." I added, my voice praticaly layered with irony. "I've still got Ruby with me."
"Susan. . ." Koga said gently, moving toward me.
"Just go." I ordered, shaking my head. Then, worried that I'd been a little too harsh, I added gently: "And you'd better hury back, got it?"
Koga nodded and turned around.
"Hey, Koga?" I asked, wrapping the still-warm blanket around my cold shoulders.
"Yeah?" He answered, turning around to face me.
"Be careful out there, okay? I don't know what's attacking to wolves, but I don't want to see you. . . I mean, I don't want you to fall into one of Naraku's traps. So just make sure you come back, okay?"
"C'mon." Koga scoffed, cuffing me on the shoulder. "You think that Naraku could trick me again? Get real. Don't worry. I'll be back, and I'll have whoever or whatever woke us up's head."
I smiled weakly and nodded.
"Right." I whispered to the boy's retreating backs. "You do that, Koga."
* * * * *
Thirty Minutes Later
* * * * *
Where are they? I wondered, adding another log to the fire. They should have been back by now. What's going on here?
I sighed and pulled Ruby closer to me. It didn't do any good worrying about it.
"Koga. . ." I murmered, throwing the blanket over my friend's back. "You'd better come back to me."
I stiffened up. Why had I just said that?! 'You'd better come back to me?' I sounded like some lovesick girl from a movie like Grease. Still, I couldn't help but worry about Koga and the others. The knot down in my stomach told me that somethig wasn't quite right.
"Well, well." came a famillar voice from out in the woods. "I didn't believe that it would actually work!"
I spun around.
"Bankotsu." I whispered, making the name a curse word. "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be stalking some poor girl?"
Bankotsu leered at me.
"Oh, shut up." He ordered aimably. "I just wanted to talk to you."
"Huh. Well you know what? I seem to remember that the last time you tried to 'talk to me' you ended up bruising my lips and running into my basement. Now why would that be, I wonder."
Bankotsu smiled at some memory.
"Well, I thought it was pretty good." he said, his eyes focusing on me. "You might not have, but then again, I wouldn't expect you to have any kissing experience."
"Hey! What's that mean, jerk?!" I demanded, planting my hands on my hips and glaring at Bankotsu. "I have so kissed a guy before! Then again, maybe I'm not the only one here."
"Wha'da mean?" he asked, looking pretty dazed.
"Well," I said, getting this evil little smile on my face. "I guess Jakotsu's gotta' let out his affection at somebody, since InuYasha won't have him, huh?"
Bankotsu scowled.
"So you don't want to talk?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Nope. Go away." I ordered, clenching up my fists.
"Well," he said, pulling out a roll of Duct Tape that he'd probably lifted from my kitchen from somewhere I couldn't see in the gloom of the night. "then I guess you're not leaving my with much of a choice."
I screamed as he jumped at me, yanking my arms behind my back and taping up my wrists with praticed motions. He kicked Ruby, who'd jumped to my defence and bitten his leg, in the ribs, sending my friend sprawling on the ground. I screamed again, trying to yank myself out of his grip.
"Shut up!" he howled, clamping his hand over my mouth.
I bit down as hard as I could, but I guess to a mercenary, the little punctures that my teeth made in his flesh was nothing but a flesh wound.
Nevertheless, he quickly replaced his hand with a couple huge pieces of tape. He pulled some cloth out of his pockets and tied it around my eyes, blinding me so I could only see the small light that bled through the matieral. I let out a slight whimper through the tape on my mouth. Not taking any chaces, he taped my upper arms around my torso.
"Alright." he whispered sneakily into my ear, "Now let's get to Mount Hakurai, shall we?"
I shivered, but not because the night was cold.
Bankotsu chuckled.
"Oh, don't worry." he said when I whimpered again. He threw some blankets over my shoulders. "I'm not going to kill you."
No, I thought, realizing just how much of a fix I was really in. No, you have much more satisfacting things planned for me, don't you, Bankotsu?
Helpless to fight it, I let Bankotsu lead m off to God only knew where, since I was blindfolded.
* * * * *
Koga
* * * * *
As soon as I saw that Jakotsu, I knew it was all a trap. A plot to lure me away from Susan. I tried to fight my way out of it, but Jakotsu was soon joined with Ginkotsu, Renkotsu, and Suikitsu. We were out numbered, out-gunned, and out-matched. And then I heard Susan's screams.
"DAMMIT! MOVE, YOU BIG BASTARDS!!!!!" I shouted, managing to rip a hole into that monsterous machine that Ginkotsu had become. And then the tables turned. Renkotsu used that fire-breathing thing on me, and I nearly avoided being roasted like a salamander in a fire.
"YESH!" Ginkotsu shouted, firing one of his cannons off at me while Suikotsu attempted to slash Hakkaku and Ginta to shreads while the Gay guy sliced through anything and everything that weren't his comrades. We were loosing. We were loosing badly. We were going to die.
But then things changed. Oh, yes, they changed.
In a split second, a flash came through the battle field, flooring Suikotsu and Renkotsu, and greatly frightening Jakotsu and even Ginkotsu seemed at a loss for words. Though he didn't let it show.
"Yesh?" he asked uncertaily.
And then the flash turned around to face me, and I gasped.
It was a half-Demon girl, with orange and black stripes on her cheeks and ears that were shaped like a cat's. Her long hair was a dull yellow, and her lips were glossed with the same kind of black stuff that Susan put on her's. Her disdaintful glance landed on Baldy, and she bared her teeth, showing her fangs that were longer than even mine.
"You." she said in a sweet but annoyed voice, pointing at him. "You and your friends get out of here. Immeditely."
"Or what?" Suikotsu demanded, climbing to his feet.
"Or you meet my friends the claws." she threatened, raising her right hand and tightening it so the knuckles cracked.
The four men exchanged a look and as one, they jumped on Ginkotsu and rumbled away.
"Heh." the slim girl said like she owned the world. "Cowards."
At another glance, I took in her loose skirt that came to her center-thighs, the pants underneath, and the long-sleeved, sweater-like top. Her black and orange tail swished here and there, and seemed to have a mind of it's own.
"Uhm," I said, looking at her. "Thanks for saving us."
"Sure." she answered, casting that half-lidded look in my direction. "They were pissing me off, anyway."
"Ri-ight." I said. "So, I'm Koga, and these two are Hakkaku and Ginta."
"Kebi." She said, looking away. "From Egypt."
"Alright." I said, making a mental not to ask Susan where Egypt was.
"Koga." Kebi said, suddenly looking over at me. "I think you'd better get going if you're going to save your friend. And by the way, I like her, so I'm coming along if there aren't any major objections"
"Right!" I said, suddenly remembering the reason for my sudden panic. "Let's get going."
End Chapter
Alright, so many confessions, so little time. Where to begin? Well, first, I have to admit that I took a lot of ideas out of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, the final book in the famous Twilight series. I didn't exactly copy anything, but a lot of my ideas came from that book, as well as personalaties from Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. I'm addicted, I guess.
Now, the kidnapping was all my idea, in case you're wondering.
As for Kebi, well, she's based off of my very violent and very good friend Casey who's been asking to be in here as a half-Tiger-Demon girl. I couldn't remember the Hawiian name that she gave me, but I wanted her to be from somewhere in Africa, so I took the Egyptian name Kebi from Breaking Dawn. I think she's going to like Kebi, since it sounds pretty cute to me.
I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this one. I had major writer's block, and then I got really buisy with school and family and my birthday and all that good stuff. But I finally have it done, so here it is, finally completed!
Well, it's November 21, and I'm going to go and see Twilight tomorrow, so I thought that I might as well put something like an add in here since I like the book so much. It's a really sweet story about a seventeen-year-old girl, Bella, who falls in love with a one-hundred-year-old vegan vampire, Edward, who looks seventeen. There's a bunch of cute little minor conflicts, plus the major one at the end with the coven to 3 normal vampires named James, Laurent, and Victoria.