A/N: Wow, yeah, I know I'm probably being or have been cursed out on several levels for my lack of updating this. But I guess moving from one tiny city to one huge overpopulated one will take its toll. I've been trying to adjust to Miami life and get settled into my new job, which, btw, is so much better than my last. I love it. ANYWAY! I present unto you, chapter 31. In word it's only a measley five pages in size 10 font...but I figured that it was worth posting considering... I also figured that I should jump on the bandwagon of my renewed inspiration and the minute amount of time I have to update!

Don't hurt me too badly, because another chapter is in the works, I assure you!

Standard disclaimers, people. The only thing I own in the slightest is Haru. Everything else to do with Inuyasha is Takahashi-san's stuff, and anything to do with Daemon, Jaenelle and the world of the Blood belongs to the ever-wonderful Anne Bishop.

Chapter 31

Kagome shot forward, breathing hard, her brown eyes wide in horror. Pain gripped her head, forcing her to curl up on her cot, moaning and groaning. "No…Not…Inuyasha…"

"Kagome?" Daemon sat up but the pain was overwhelming him, forcing him back down onto the cot. He'd felt this before sensation before, seen these kinds of nightmares.

"Inuyasha!"

"K-Kagome, listen to me," Daemon's fingers curled in the blanket and raw black power surged through him, adding a little more strength. "Kagome, you had a nightmare,"

"Where is Inuyasha? He can't be…dead?"

"He's in Kaeleer, Kagome, remember?" Struggling to regain his composure and to sit up right, which confused him because he wasn't as tired anymore, Daemon tried to focus on calming the woman down. "What is this?" He groaned, the sharp stabbing pain in his temples penetrating his mind. That's when he felt it, a light brush against his inner barriers and the raw stench of demonic power surrounding him. The pressure he felt was being caused by this power. Closing his gold eyes, Daemon sealed his inner barriers as tightly as he could and focused on finding the source of that power.

Beside him, Kagome twisted, jerked, and was silent again. The dream had overtaken her once more, forcing her down into the darkness of Kanna's cursed nightmares. They were trying to distract them, to cripple them. Kagome wasn't Blood and couldn't detect it as easily as he could, but Daemon was aware that her Miko power should have been resisting the brushes and the pressure, but it didn't seem to be. Of course, she had regained consciousness only seconds before so perhaps she was fighting it?

Cursing, Daemon twisted and threw the blanket away from his body, fighting the dangerous lour of sleep. A vision of Jaenelle blinded him for a moment and the stabbing pain intensified, winding him and forcing him onto the ground. Groaning, he grabbed his head and tried to force the image away, but it wouldn't leave him. The vision of his wife moved before his face, seemingly smiling and reassuring and then turning hateful and nasty.

"I know what you dream of doing with Kagome, Daemon. I know what you want. But it's all right. I've found someone else,"

"Jaenelle!" Crying out, Daemon reached a hand out towards her and shuddered when the vision changed and Inuyasha was standing behind her, holding Haru against his side and looking vicious.

"You both betrayed us," Inuyasha snarled as he wrapped a free arm around Jaenelle's waist. "I'm taking my son and my new lover and leaving for good,"

"No! You can't…! It's not…what you think…I…Jaenelle! JAENELLE!"

"PRINCE!" Kaede slammed her knee hard into Daemon's back to draw his attention onto new pain rather than old. "Do not be fooled, Prince! It is the demon child, Kanna, who tries to trick you! What you are dreaming is not true!"

"Jaenelle…"

"Jaenelle is still with you, Prince. Kagura will try and take her away so that she may have you all to herself! Just as she would try and take Inuyasha away from Kagome so that she might have the pup!" Kaede shook him hard by the shoulders and pinned him, staring directly into the panicked gold eyes that stared back up at her. "You must believe that it is just a dream! Kagura wants you and your power for herself. She craves it! She will try to make you believe that you have nothing left! What Kagura wants is what she gets if you let her win!"

"Jaenelle…" Daemon tried to look away, but something inside of him was stirring as if a sleeping monster was being awakened by this news. "Jaenelle is…still with…me…?" The monster in him twisted, turned, stretched out its senses and probed for anything tangible. Daemon's body tightened and then those panicked gold eyes sharpened to a hard yellow. His body was still and the pressure was suddenly gone. Once again, Daemon could see clearly.

"Kanna's nightmares are horrid things," Kaede whispered as Daemon sat up and rolled his neck and shoulders to rid him of the last of the pain. "Prince? Are you yourself again?"

"So," Daemon glanced at her, his expression sleepy, bored even. "Kagura wants me for herself, does she?"

Kaede had been stunned by the look on Daemon's face and the ease with which he spoke and couldn't really find the words. What had she just woken in him? She nodded to answer him, unsure if what she'd just done would work out for the better or for the worst.

"Then let us not disappoint her," Daemon rose from his cot, stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets and moved for the door.

"What are you doing?"

"If Kagura wants me, than she shall have me," Daemon smiled a cold, cruel smile and then slipped out of the hut and onto the path that would lead him to the post on the village boundaries where he'd left Kouga. Feeling his approach, the wolf demon turned and studied the pale face and the bedraggled hair, and wondered if Kanna's nightmares had been what had made the man look so dull, so bored…so lifeless.

"Kouga, stay with Kagome. Watch over her,"

"Sure,"

Daemon brushed passed him to head up towards the edge of the clearing where his black shield ended and Kouga watched him step through it and walk through the throngs of demons untouched. Once he knew Daemon was out of sight, he smirked and headed towards Kaede's hut, looking more sinister now that he no longer had to keep up the guise of the wolf demon, Kouga. He had a job to do for lady Kagura.

The demon disguised as Kouga, approached the hut belonging to Kaede as casually as possible, but as he reached out towards the clothed entry, his hand paused over the threshold. He pulled it back curiously, then shoved it forward again. As with the first time he'd thrust his hand to throw back the cloth and step inside, a seeping coldness had slipped into him, bringing with it the feeling that he didn't want to go inside. Something clicked into place inside of him, telling him that whatever lay beyond that veil, he didn't want to see. Still, he had a mission to attend to; orders to carry out. If he were unable to perform his duties, the Lady Kagura would kill him, ruining any and all of his chances at becoming a reigning demon lord.

Again the sick feeling overwhelmed him, but this time he forced it aside to do what he'd been told to do. He stepped inside, a difficult feat when he'd felt some invisible force shoving him backwards, and peered down at the sleeping mother and pup.

Lady Kagura had been correct! Inuyasha and the wench had had a child together, and, he sensed, the child was definitely going to be a problem if not properly raised. Lady Kagura would see to it that he was "properly" raised. And she'd do right by his side, as she'd promised. Once she got rid of the black haired, golden eyed stranger, all would be well in the world again.

Temptation over came him as he looked over at the sleeping old priestess, his hunger for human flesh temporarily blurring everything else out. She was defenseless against him, and it was that kind of prey that drew him, made his dominance that much more significant. He approached Kaede slowly, false colored eyes glittering hungrily as he gazed down at her. She had plenty of meat on her bones, which would provide for a very good meal. Kagura wouldn't mind if he took a few extra minutes to feast before tearing the pup from his mother's arms. After that, he'd satisfy a different hunger. Another thing Lady Kagura wouldn't mind him indulging in.

Despite the heat the demons around him exerted from their bodies, the air had dropped several degrees lower than it had been prior to his stepping through the shields. Every step he walked left everything behind coated in a thin layer of ice. His golden eyes looked sleepy, but behind that glittered the dangerous malevolence that made up the Sadist. Daemon Sadi paused on the trail for a moment, glancing around his surroundings with a look of feigned interest and approval, knowing Kagura was watching him for any sign that he was coming to her and for her rather than to put an end to the problem and save the pitiful miko and her even more pitiful pup.

"You can come out, darling," Daemon's voice was dull, but carried with it the smallest hint of the sensuality that was sure to catch her attention. "Don't you want to come out?"

A sound behind him made him turn, facing the eerily pale child with her long white hair and dull, blank eyes. The mirror she held in her hands flashed dangerously as she searched him for any sign of a lie. With one, concentrated blast from the Black, he shattered the mirror and her magic, smiling ever so slightly.

"You don't want to do that," He said pleasantly when she furrowed her brow at him, certain that if he'd had nothing to hide, he wouldn't have destroyed her weapon. She didn't care anymore that the spell she'd woven over the people of Kaede's village was quickly dying out. Daemon was in their midst, and soon that demon would have Kagome's pup. Kagura would get everything she desired. And when Inuyasha came to take the pup back, Daemon would destroy him just as he'd destroyed the Saimyosho, making Kagura the most powerful Demoness in the realms.

"Is it such a crime to want to see the animal beneath the flesh of the human?" Kagura purred as she stepped out of the shadows, something feral flickering in the back of her red eyes.

"Not a crime," Daemon crooned, smirking lazily as Kagura shuddered at the sensual caress his voice provided. Such easy prey. "Just not very wise,"

"I had expected you much sooner," Kagura pouted as she looked towards Kanna. "Go keep watch for the demon. I want that pup unharmed!"

Something inside of him clicked into place as she said it. So, he'd been right to weave those spells around Kaede's hut before he'd left. Even his exhaustion hadn't blinded him to the strange glint in Kouga's eyes. Daemon's hard yellow orbs swept over their surroundings. "Have you killed the wolf?"

Kagura turned to face him again and smiled pleasantly. "No. Thought I would leave that for you to do," She didn't know why she'd said it, but something oh so pleasant had slipped into her mind. Why not let Daemon kill Kouga? At least then the heat from the bloodlust might possibly change to an entirely different lust.

Daemon cocked his head to the side, the bored, sleepy expression still plastered on his face. She'd taken the bait. It wouldn't be hard to take care of her and free Kouga, but what worried him was Kagome and Haru who were both at risk if Kagome was unable to see past the falsehood of the demon disguising himself as Kouga. But if he knew her as well as he'd hoped, she wouldn't let that pup go for anything in the world. Just like he would never let go of Jaenelle. Not for anyone or anything. The people of Dhemlan had made the mistake of underestimating and doubting his loyalty and love to and for his wife and they'd paid for it. He'd done them a kindness by not wearing the black among them, by trying to fit in. But they hadn't appreciated it and he'd shown them the price for that.

Kagura was dead wrong if she thought she could ever replace Jaenelle in his heart or in his bed.

Daemon's absence had startled Kagome into a kind of still alertness that put her on edge. The dream world she'd been trapped in shattered like glass and fell from her just as quickly as it had snapped up, and the world of the real had brought her back to herself. Haru wriggled on her chest, still caught in a dream, hopefully pleasant, and for a moment she didn't fear for his safety.

Then a sound like a foot scuffing the gravel outside of the veiled doorway of Kaede's hut caught her attention and she felt the old woman snore softly in her sleep. Was it Daemon?

Something inside of her told her that it wasn't, and that didn't make her feel any better. Her arms slid up around her pup and she turned onto her side to face Kaede, pressing her pup to her chest in an effort to better shield him if it was needed.

Whomever was standing outside hesitated so long before entering that Kagome had started to think that maybe she was just being paranoid, but then it finally entered, and an overwhelming sense of danger threatened to choke her. Whoever this was, it wasn't Daemon, nor was it Kouga or any of the other villagers that might have been entering Kaede's hut at this time of the night.

She didn't dare look up, but she clutched Haru closer, feigning sleep, while still trying to keep tabs on the person, or demon, that had trespassed. For a long while she felt his eyes were on hers, but felt safe enough to open her eyes when she felt the floor boards shift as he moved towards Kaede. For a moment, she would have believed it was Kouga, but his scent wasn't the same, the way he moved wasn't the same, and something was terribly wrong.

Haru twisted in her arms, grunting in his sleep, drawing the demon's attention to her and her open eyes. For a moment, they just stared at each other for a moment, and, had she not known any better, she would have believed this was Kouga and not some imposter. It really did look like him.

"Did I wake you, Kagome?"

Kouga's voice, but without the cockiness and the arrogance. Not the same glitter in his eyes that Kouga would have had if he'd been the one asking the question.

"No, I was already awake," Kagome sat up and cuddled Haru close to her chest as she did so, catching the flicker of dismay and panic in the demon's eyes. If he didn't know that she could see right through his disguise, that could certainly work to his advantage. "What's wrong, Kouga?"

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, studying her with an intensity that she really didn't like, before turning to look back down at Kaede. "Nothing. Just tense is all. Daemon's been gone for a while,"

"Where did he go?" Kagome asked, trying to keep her voice from betraying her. Best to get some answers before she sprang a trap she hadn't even been able to set yet.

Again, the demon hesitated, but she could see that he obviously saw no harm in telling her, which just made her shiver. He must have had some seriously nasty intentions for her once he got what he wanted. No doubt about it now; he was working for Kagura.

"He went into the forest of Inuyasha,"

"What for?" Kagome moved to rise, but the demon growled at her, making her stop. She studied him for a long moment, panic strangling her throat enough to catch his attention. The jig was up. He knew.

"Just give me the pup and things won't have to get complicated,"

"Don't come any closer," Kagome whispered as she pulled Haru as close to her chest as she could. With a twitch of his furry white ears, Haru roused, immediately picking up the scent of danger around him. He squirmed unhappily, nudging into his mother's shirt, seeking a place to hide from the danger. Movement behind the demon caught her eye suddenly, but he didn't turn quick enough after seeing her distraction to miss the blow to the head he suffered from Kaede's clay vase. He fell hard, landing with a sickening thud to the floor boards. The sickening crunch she'd heard as the vase had made impact with his head had made her stomach churn, but at least now he couldn't harm them.

"I knew something was amiss!" Kaede announced as she dropped the handle of the vase, all that remained of it, to the ground beside the rest of its shattered pieces.

"Thank goodness you weren't really sleeping," Kagome muttered as she rose from her cot and leaned over the demon, surprised to see the pool of green blood seeping from his head. "I think you got him,"

"Good!" Kaede snapped as she looked the woman over intensely. "Are ye ok?"

"I'm fine," Kagome checked on Haru for a moment then focused her gaze back to Kaede. "What about Daemon? Did he really go into the forest?"

"Yes. He was able to force the nightmares back and realize what was happening. I told him that Kagura wanted him and his power, and he said, "Then let us not disappoint her", and left!" Kaede rubbed her wrist a little and looked uncertain. "There was something terrible in his eyes when he'd smiled, too,"

"The Sadist," Kagome whispered, her stomach giving a little flutter. "Jaenelle told me about it a little while ago. That's what they called him in the court's he was forced to serve. She said that Daemon was passionate about some things, and when those things were threatened he went…cold…"

Kaede shifted slightly on her better leg, her mind wandering in thought. "Kagura has got her hands full with him, then. At least now we can safely assume that he was the reason that the nightmares ended."

"You're right. It probably was him. And Daemon's got enough sense to make it look like an accident, too. Kagura has no idea what she's woken up,"

"What about this one?" Kaede gave the limp body of the demon a hard kick for her own satisfaction and looked up at Kagome.

"I'm not sure," Kagome looked down at Haru. "If Inuyasha were here, I'd leave the demon for Inuyasha to deal with however he cared to. But since that's not an option and I really don't know how powerful this one is, I think he should just throw him outside of the village and outside of Daemon's shields. With any luck, Daemon will finish with Kagura and get rid of it on his way back. If he has any strength left. He didn't get much sleep, did he?"

"Hardly any," Kaede confirmed.

End Chapter