Title: Howl at the Moon

Warnings: slight smut

Dormant Memories

o0o0o0o

- 2 HOURS AGO -

As Rukia drove tirelessly through the rough terrain of the dirt road up the mountains in a compact car rental, her mind drifted back to her conversation with Byakuya.

_ - _ -  _ - _ - _

24 hours earlier . . .

"The investigators have located him." Byakuya stated stoically. He was the proverbial businessman, the epitome of calm, cool, and collected nobility. Nothing ever fazed his façade. Well, nothing other than the death of his wife, Hisana.

Her heart began to beat so loudly that for a moment she thought she had misheard him. It took her a while before she could find her voice again to stammer coarsely, "W-What? Where is he? How can I get there?"

Instead of answering her promptly, he paused and asked her a question that cast an instant pall over her eagerness of being able to meet up with Ichigo once again.

"In light of his location . . . . Mind you, it's just a theory, but . . . . Rukia, have you ever thought that the reason he broke off your engagement may have been medical related?"

"I don't understand, nii-sama. What do you mean?" she replied in baffled confusion.

"Let's say he was terminally ill or something, would he want you to live a life like that with him? Or perhaps he was afraid of spreading some type of disease to you?"

Her eyes opened wide in shock, and her mouth gaped open. A medical related sickness? Something like that would have never occurred to her. She thought long and hard before she responded softly, "I-If that was the case . . . .Then yes, he would very likely find a way to break our engagement to see me happy with someone else."

Eyes softening with subtle softness, he asked her one last question. "Do you still want to see him again?"

Rukia's eyes shined with determination, "Yes, nii-sama. Now, more than ever. If he is as stricken as you surmise, I want to be able to spend any last moments with him regardless of his health symptoms."

Sighing in sadness, Byakuya handed her the folder this investigators had gathered on the missing orange-headed insolent boy his sister was still in love with. "I've already made travel arrangements for you. You leave tomorrow morning. Be careful, Rukia. . Most importantly, promise me that regardless of his situation, . . . you'll come back."

_ - _ -  _ - _ - _

The closer she reached her destination, the more agitated she became. As it was, her body was running on exhaust fumes. Since her tête-à-tête with Byakuya, she had been unable to either sleep or eat the night before. Theories and speculations had her stomach constantly churning in worry. And her thoughts were a chaotic mess, consumed with meeting the love of her life once again. What would he think of her? Or what would he say to her?

Subconsciously, she had dressed in the white linen dress that Ichigo always claimed to be his favorite. Teasingly, he used to taunt softly in her ear that if there were ever a dress that would cause him to fantasize about ripping it off of her to ravish her on any available hard surface, this would be the one. Being October 31st however, a thin strapped sun dress may have not been the best choice in this merciless elevation. Up the mountains, the weather was reaching its last autumn stages, and the scent of snow was working its passage down the mountain. In fact the dark gloomy clouds above threatened to release a torrent of rain soon. Unfortunately, in her distraction, not only was she dressed inappropriately for the natural element, but she had also forgotten to bring some sort of overcoat.

Time had flown by so fast; before long, the sun was beginning to set. Shortly after, she could spot a roughly built cabin in the distance. Slowing down, she parked the car nearby, and sat there in silence for several minutes contemplating the illumination shining through the windows. Unfortunately, as she waited for her courage to stiffen up her resolution, large rain drops began to fall while the ominous thunder sounds echoed through the night air.

Thankful for the umbrella that the rental car was equipped with, she opened the door and popped open the umbrella. Goosebumps ran up and down her chilled arms as she walked towards the cabin. After one deeply inhaled breath, she knocked smartly on the door. Upon receiving no response, she turned the handle and pushed open the unlocked entrance. Noiselessly, the door swung wide open to an empty room. Feeling like an interloper, she stepped further inside after closing her umbrella.

The cabin was equipped with the barest essentials of comfort: a ratty sofa, table, and a couple of rickety chairs. However, it must have obviously run on some sort of generator to produce electricity in the lighting fixtures.

On top of the only table in the cabin, a multitude of medical texts books lay open haphazardly along with a lap top, a centrifuge machine, and the expensive high tech microscope she had gifted him last Christmas. Rukia sighed in sadness, because judging by the vials of blood he was obviously testing . . . all evidence pointed to her brother's theory of Ichigo being stricken with some sort of incurable illness.

As she turned to scan the room once more, her breath caught as she noticed the objects littered all over the surface of the wood burning fireplace mantel. Walking closer to the mantel, she picked up one picture frame. Rukia's eyes filled with emotional tears as she stared unblinkingly at the item cradled within her hands. It was a picture of the both of them the day he had proposed to her. They had both been so ecstatically happy. Glancing at the rest of the pictures, she assured herself that they were all indeed pictures of either the both of them together or just of her exclusively.

He even had a picture of her in a series of bandages around her head and a cast around her leg. That picture marked the beginning of their so-called Romeo and Juliet drama. Their relationship didn't start out like the typical romance scripts of the movies. Ichigo had been heading home for a 3 day vacation from his medical internship, and Rukia had been wandering around the neighborhood on her own break from her preppy college to meet up with her friend, Renji.

Seeing a child about to be hit, Rukia had instinctively jumped in and thrown the child out of harms way. Unfortunately, Rukia had been injured in the process, and she ended up being the one that got hit by the drunken driver. From a distance, Ichigo had seen everything that happened and he had rushed towards her. Incidentally, he chose to carry her unconscious form into his father's clinic a couple of doors down rather than wait for an ambulance. That was how they had met, not the most romantic event of her life, especially when she was black and blue all over, and bandaged up like a mummy.

To say the air current around the both of them crackled with electrical sparks each time they were within a couple of feet of each other was a severe understatement. After she had awoken from her concussion, Ichigo and Rukia began bickering like an old married couple after years of matrimony. His father, Dr. Isshin Kurosaki, seeing potential grandchildren prospects in the making—underhandedly claimed that he was much too busy to attend to Rukia medically. Thus, he forced his son—with the horrible bedside manners—to fill in for him.

By the time Rukia was well enough to leave the clinic, they had each gone onto their own separate lives. However, they remained in contact with each other over the following years, and the nightly phone arguments and verbal wars slowly started to loose their steam and dissipate. Eventually, it morphed into something softer, deeper, and intimately long lasting. In her final year of college and his last year of internship, Ichigo proposed marriage to her—to the utter dismay of Byakuya. After the battle of masculine pride between Ichigo and Byakuya got resolved—grudgingly if that, their plan was to marry after they had both completed their school programs.

Rukia smiled wryly, lost in her thoughts as she returned the picture frame back to its original place on the mantel, until a shiny object next to a nearby frame caught her eye. Picking up the locket, she popped open the silver heart pendant and gazed at the picture of her within its womb. She swallowed the sob that threatened to break free. Without a doubt, he still loved her deeply. This locket and these pictures clearly proved that.

Unable to wait a moment longer, she walked back out the front door to try and confront Ichigo as soon as possible. If he knew she was here, his innate sense of stubbornness and his savior complex may cause him to flee from her again. So she needed to corner him first and demand some hard answers.

Popping open her umbrella once again, she followed the obvious signs of foot tracks starting from his front door to a well trod path around the back of the cabin. Despite the rain, she could see an orange headed naked male form kneeling in the middle of an open field downhill. Her eyes widened in surprise. It was Ichigo! Albeit, he was obviously shaking and trembling in the cold rain; his arms were wrapped protectively around his torso in visible pain. Concerned she was about to call out to him, but as the sun began to set something frightening began to happen along his skin and spine. His back muscles began to ripple as if something unseen was about to burst from within.

"Ichigo," she gasped in surprise. Despite the distance, he jerked his head around in shock, obviously hearing her voice.

When menacing glowing yellow eyes glared up at her, Rukia froze in terror like a deer caught in a headlight. In an instant, and like the release of a flood gate, memories of that one fateful night washed through her.

Flashback . . .

Ichigo had walked her to her bedroom door. Luckily Byakuya was out of town for a business meeting, so that meant both Ichigo and she could have long heart to heart chat about the fight earlier. However, once they entered her room, Ichigo turned around, then closed and locked her door. Glancing at him in confusion, Rukia silently stared at him, noting that beneath his exterior he was still smoldering with in anger.

Walking up and close to her, he gripped the back of her neck and pulled her face a scant inch from his. Snarling in anger, he breathed out in a growl, "You belong to me! No one touches you! Do you understand me, Rukia?"

Gaping at him in surprise, she hissed at him fearlessly, "What in the world is wrong with you, idiot? You can't just go ape-shit Tarzan on me claiming I'm your Jane!"

She was ready for a knock down all out verbal warfare, but all at once a strange expression flitted across his handsome features. He suddenly looked hungry and covetous—as if she in her innocence possessed some kind of treat he'd never tasted before.

Rukia expected Ichigo to fire back at her like he normally would. Despite their love for one another, their battle of wills could flare at the drop of a hat. What she didn't expect was for him to jerk her so close to him that their torsos mashed seamlessly against each other. She fought to be free from his hold on principle alone, yet her movements were softened by the heady passion that was building within her, and she quickly found she was no match for him at all. His hand rode at her back while his other had stroked through her hair.

She made to scream at him, but before she could, his mouth stifled her protest. His lips found hers, and once he had them—he refused to relinquish her no matter how hard she strained to escape. Eventually, his kiss became so deep and thorough that his tongue broke the barrier of her teeth, and he thrust himself again and again into her mouth until she moaned in feeble protest. He was ravaging her mouth like the world was going to end tomorrow. She couldn't help but reciprocate the overpowering lust that was blazing out of control.

Like his unrelenting mouth, Ichigo's hands became just as brutal as she felt him press her closer into his embrace, until she felt the air was being sucked out of her. After a long moment, Ichigo jerked his mouth from her and rasped out, "You belong to me, and tonight I'll mark my ownership over you in every way."

With his words still ringing in the air, he stepped back slightly and gripped the delicate silk of her dress and ripped it off of her back. With the tattered pieces still adorning her body, he lifted her in his arms and threw her on the bed.

Shocked to the core at Ichigo's behavior, Rukia immediately flipped over and tried to crawl off the bed. But he gripped one delicate ankle before she could leave, and inexorably dragged her back towards the center of her bed. Once she was positioned where he wanted her, he straddled and pinned her down. While she screamed at him to "get off", he continued to rip the rest of her dress and undergarments off until she was bare to his gaze.

Regardless of his anger, and what he was obviously planning on doing to her. Rukia could never be truly afraid of Ichigo hurting her. She didn't exactly understand what was going through his head, but she didn't exactly fear it either. It was instinctive, she would always trust him with her love, health, and happiness. As he perused her body visually for several long moments, Rukia blushed and attempted to cross her arms over her chest. Although, they had made out countless times in the past, Ichigo had never seen her completely unclothed. She couldn't help reacting like the blushing virgin she was.

Growling in annoyance, he jerked her arms away and pinned them above her head. As soon as the visual obstacle had been dealt with, his mouth and teeth lowered to her breasts unrepentantly. Arching her back in surprise, she moaned out loud, unable to hold back the desire that suddenly coursed through her veins. Never had he been this raw and passionate before. Strangely enough, it was a huge turn on despite the little painful nips he sprinkled around her breasts, nipples and ribs.

Without mercy, Ichigo planted both of his legs between hers, and pried her thighs wider apart. He then released her arms as he trailed possessively playful bites down towards her raven curls. He fell upon her clit and her lower wet folds indiscriminately, drinking voraciously like a wandering man seeing an oasis of water in an endless plain of dessert. In between a series of licking and suckling actions, she could catch the slight animalistic purring sounds emitting unreservedly from deep within his throat. Catching her clit between his lips, he jerked hard on it, causing her to scream in climax. Her body clenched instantly, shuddering through her first orgasm, making her accept the explosion of pleasure.

She was thankful that none of the servants resided any where near her room; otherwise they might have contacted the police thinking that Ichigo was killing her. Killing her in the physical sense that is; howbeit, her body was going through the fires of death as the orgasm raced up and down every nerve ending inside of her.

Continuing to lick the last of her juices dry, Ichigo resumed his attack on her clit again. This time he used a combination of clever finger movements, to thrust deeply inside her slick sheath and hit a special area she hadn't even known existed. Before she could grasp reality, her body was clenching spasmodically as another mind boggling climax ripped through her, barely on the heels of the first one.

_ - _ -  _ - _ - _

Hours later . . . .

Five? Six? Seven times? Rukia lost count of the number of times he brought her to completion with just his hands and mouth. She was utterly blind to everything around her as her body convulsed uncontrollably after each consecutive orgasm. Her entire body trembled in exhaustion as wave upon wave of orgasm rushed throughout her body; it was like sticking a finger in an electrical current.

Ichigo refused to stop his attacks until she was left as limp as a wet noodle. He only ceased after she was finally able to summon a hoarse voice to weakly protest, "Ichigo, please stop. I can't . . . No more . . ."

However, once she opened her eyes to focus on Ichigo's features as he lifted himself slightly to stare at her; she froze in shock. His beautiful amber eyes were now glowing brightly, and the irises had expanded until none of the whites of his eyes showed. In addition, his jaw line had morphed into a strange bestial form. The hands he used to clench into her bedding next to her body were completely inhuman in shape and form. His body was literally trembling uncontrollably, held in check by only the most tenuous grasp of will.

Rukia gasped out softly, "Ichigo?"

His response was to bare his elongated canines and growl menacing at her.

As she was starting to cudgel her disbelieving eyes into something that would make sense, the world spun dizzyingly around her. She must have blacked out because she couldn't remember anything other than waking up the next morning with the remaining evidence of Ichigo's marked passion along her pale skin.

End Flashback

With only a sliver of humanity and sanity remaining in his eyes, he snarled in a low guttural voice, "Rukia, run! I can't hold it off any longer. Run!"

Unable to stop his instincts, Ichigo lifted his head towards the full moon and howled out his frustration, pain, and fear. It wasn't until that inhuman sound echoed in the air that Rukia suddenly awoke from her paralysis, filling her with raw and overwhelming terror. She fought back her rising hysteria as she watched his form change in obvious pain. Turning around, she sprinted back around the cabin towards her car.

Fumbling for her keys, she was thankful she hadn't locked the doors. As soon as she leaped into her car, she had the key in her ignition in under a second. When the engine fired up, she immediately backed the car in reverse. However, when she tried to do a 3-point turn, she must have driven into a large pot hole. Her back wheels screeched and tried to gather traction unsuccessfully, but she was stuck.

Hearing another howl coming closer, she knew that sitting in a locked car wasn't going to hold out for long against Ichigo. Would it hold until sunrise? She didn't think so. It might be possible to find a hiding place until the sun rose. Making a split decision, she gave up on the car's illusion of safety. So she opened the door and ran headlong into the abysmal-looking forest.

Don't look back. Run like hell. Live. Live for another day to find a way to be with your soul mate.

I'm sorry nii-sama, I may not be able to keep my promise . . . .

o0o0o0o

A/N:

Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Did the memories of the black out incident meet your expectations? Were all the flashback scenes too confusing? For some reason, the ending of this chapter reminds me of those stupid victims in horror slasher movies. Oh well, something had to have happened to the car so that she can run terrorized through the forest, right?

I added a short blurb on Ichigo's and Rukia's love story at shinigami_wannabe's request for more on their prior relationship. Hope you enjoyed it. It's a short story, so I don't want to expound too much on how they got together. And yes, I'm always open to suggestions, criticisms, or just plain opinions (good/bad). If you're a grammar nazi, have at it. I'm thankful for any help.

Next Chapter: "Dark Desires After Dusk" The follow-up to the events immediately after the Prologue.

I'm still hurrying to wrap up this story, but I tweaked my wrists again in picking up my daughter over the weekend. So I may end up finishing this story completely after Halloween. Which also means the next chapter for "Dream of Me" gets delayed a little longer. Don't kill me. (cringing) Its 4k words of smut, and needs to be heavily revised for fluidity, a lot has happened since the story's conception.

As always, special thanks to all the reviewers, in particular to the anonymous ones that I can't reply to. I really do appreciate hearing from you all; it makes the pain negligible to some degree. And I promise to respond to all the PM's and the beta chapter in my queue soon. (whimper)

Fathom