"This is a suicide mission!" Inuyasha felt his outrage getting the best of him. He crumpled the envelope and let it drop to the ground. "I won't do it."

"Oh?" Yura practically purred with pleasure. She leaned back in the wooden chair, uncrossing her legs and leaving him with a wide view. It would have been seductive had he not witnessed the bloody mass that occupied the chair before her. He didn't want to know who it had been.

"Well, I suppose you have every right to refuse as a member of this organization."

He looked at her warily, feeling any hope he had left drain away. "I do?"

She laughed then, deep and jubilant but her eyes held a sinister edge. "I'll just have to tell Kagura about your decision to leave the organization. You don't think she'll mind do you? If you're lucky, Naraku might not even find out. He's not much interested in the workings on our level, you know." She pursed her lips as if deep in consideration.

He looked to the ground solemnly, balling his hands into shaking fists and feeling slick blood coat his fingers in the process. He let his shoulders slump, relaxing his fists so that his fingers once more hung limply at his sides. He looked at his torn palms, eyes distant and jerked at Yura's sudden touch. It amazed him how quickly she could move sometimes. She leaned close to him, gripping his shoulder tightly as she whispered against his neck, "If you're lucky they'll send your dear brother."

He jerked away from her as if stung, wiping at the place where her lips had met his skin, only managing to smear blood across his neck. "I'll do it, okay."

She smiled wickedly, "And here I was hoping they'd give you to me once they were finished. Pity you changed your mind."

He scowled, already walking away from her. "It's not like I had a choice," he called over his shoulder.


Kagome was missing more and more of her classes. The fact that her grades were getting worse was depressing, but she just didn't have the will to study anymore. It all seemed so irrelevant to her training. Not that she was actually in training to become an agent, but it had been deemed necessary to learn some self-defense. And since the Patrol offered some of the best practice facilities for free, who was she to turn down such a generous offer? In truth, she suspected it was just a ploy to make it easier for Sango and Miroku to keep an eye on her. And Kouga had even offered his protection, though she declined it. She didn't quite feel comfortable having gangsters watch over her house, not that secret government agents were any more comforting or normal–where was she going with this thought process again?

She groaned, letting her head sink to the desk. It had been two hours and her studying had proven fruitless again. What did she need all this protection from anyway? That was the question no one seemed willing to answer. It was unsettling and left a bad taste in her mouth.

She was just about to call Sango and complain again when the phone started ringing. She jumped, letting out a sigh of frustration at her nervousness and quickly snatched up the receiver. "Hello?"

Not surprisingly, it was Kouga. He had been persistent in pursuing her attention ever since their first conversation nearly a month ago. It was oddly sweet, but well, he was a demon and might have killed some people. Okay, probably had killed people. And because of that she didn't feel right accepting his attention. At least that's what her brain was telling her she should do. Her body seemed to like acting of it's own separate accord recently.

His voice was deep and oozed of confidence, and his seductive, "Hey babe," sent shivers down her spine.

Suddenly she found herself grinning into the receiver. "How did you get this number?"

She tried to sound irritated and failed miserably. He laughed in turn, countering with, "I have my ways."

"It's because you're the new lap dog for our friendly Patrol isn't it?"

His voice held less humor as he responded to her taunting with, "Ouch."

It was clear to anyone that Kouga was unhappy with the fact that a transmitter chip had been surgically placed into his arm before he was released, though he tried to hide the temporary scar behind a leather wrist band. She hadn't bothered to ask but was fairly certain that its removal would bring consequences to the young wolf. And she was finding herself more curious as to its purpose with each new encounter.

"Didn't it ever occur to you that maybe it's because of who I am?"

She could hear that cocky smirk once more in his voice. But she wondered, what other compromises had been made for his freedom? She didn't think the infamous Patrol would take lightly to setting free their captured demons. At least, she had never heard of any instance. But then again, the agency was shrouded in mystery.

"So how's the woman of my dreams?"

He had used her hesitation to change the subject. She laughed, though it wasn't genuine. "There must be something you want."

He continued the banter with, "You wound me," but paused before answering truthfully, "I want you to come out with me tonight."

She felt her heart rate increase at the thought. "At night?" It's dangerous. The words pounded in her mind but remained unspoken.

He laughed deeply, and again she felt his voice affect her physically. This time she blushed, beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"I'll have some of my boys pick you up. Don't worry, you won't be in any danger with us."

And just like that he was gone. She was left alone listening to the buzz of a dead line. Who was she to refuse a mob boss?


Inuyasha's gaze flicked back to the beach bar a few lights down, across from the pier. The female agent had followed Kagome here, and that was going to be a distraction for him. He should be over there making sure that fucking wolf kept his hands off of her. But first he had a job to do.

The setting sun cast a small shadow from her figure, and he watched it, intent on the sway of her pony-tail. This was suicide. She was one of the Patrol's top agents, and the sun was scheduled to set at any moment. Then he would be powerless in the middle of a death fight. They had set him up good this time. But he didn't have the option of refusing. It wasn't the first time he had regretted joining the demon group, but truthfully he had needed the protection once, and he had been too short sighted as a child to recognize the potential consequences. But it was useless to regret something he couldn't change. He gave a wry smile and stepped from the side of building, leaving the safety of the shadows to fall into stride behind her. Sango tensed but kept walking, and it was then that he knew he was going to lose.


She couldn't get over how well he had healed. From the moment he had picked her up, Kagome had been staring at his smooth, gorgeous skin. And from his arrogant smile, he was well aware of it. Kouga slid his arm around her waist, causing her to tense slightly. He leaned into her then, whispering into her hair, and she looked away from the men across the table with their carnal eyes. He was saying something about a precious jewel, refering to her possibly, but her mind wandered from his words. She would never be able to forget the images of that night. He had looked so weak, on the verge of death that first time. And now it was the difference between night and day. He was confident, strong, vital—aggressive. It seemed suddenly overwhelming.

She had to get away. "I need to use the ladies' room; excuse me."

She didn't wait for his acknowledgement, and Kouga watched her as she made her way across the dimly lit room, cerulean eyes lit with curiosity and darker things. He turned back to his companions with a wolfish grin before taking a swig of beer, the bottom of the brown bottle clinking against the table as he set it down a little too forcefully.

"You're sure she's the one?" a man with blond hair and pale green eyes asked suspiciously from across the table. "She seems an ordinary girl to me."

Kouga's eyes narrowed despite the unoffending nature of the inquiry. "I'm telling you, she'll bring prosperity to this tribe. And don't any of you forget that she's mine. I'll split anyone open who touches her."

The eyes of the other wolves at the table glittered dangerously, each of them secretly enthralled to hear their leader sounding more like his old self again. They had begun to worry after his incident with the Patrol. But if he was acting this way over a mere human girl, then maybe she would prove useful afterall.


He was leaving a trail of blood in the sand. He turned to face the female agent, back to the water and felt rather than saw the sun dip below the waves. It was all over. Inuyasha dropped to one knee in the sand, his pain threshold instantly lowered as a human. He fought the nausea and desperation as he looked up at her, advancing on him, gun trained on his chest.