CHAPTER 9: HOWLING AT THE MOON
Inuyasha dusted off some of the old books and furniture in the study. The following week had been interesting to say the least. After meeting Miroku and serving tea, the man groped him and then got down on one knee asking Inuyasha to marry him. Of course Inuyasha turned him down immediately, not stupid enough to marry a handsome traveler that he just met. Koga was absolutely furious, he threw the bastard out of the mansion. After he was gone the ghost told him that Miroku was a vampire and that he should stay away from the creep. That didn't seem to stop the blood sucker from coming by almost every day to say hello and fish for a date. It got to the point that Koga spent most of his time patrolling the grounds to keep the pervert out.
"It always gets so dusty in here", Inuyasha said to himself using the feather duster on an old lamp. He went to pick up what looked like a small silver statue of a wolf, but it wouldn't budge. Further pulling revealed that it was stuck to the wooden table that sat next to the wall. "Weird", Inuyasha continued to fumble with the statue until the head twisted and the sound of gears turning behind the walls could be heard. One of the bookshelves slid open releasing old dust and revealing a secret door.
"Okay that's pretty cool", Inuyasha had no idea the mansion had secret doors and passageways. Grabbing a flashlight from his desk drawer he decided to explore the hidden passageway. Using the light he followed the path down a dark set of stone stairs further and further until Inuyasha was sure that he was underneath the mansion now. Eventually he found an old red wood locked door that wouldn't budge.
"Dammit", Inuyasha cursed to himself after trying the knob again. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head. He remembered he had keys that were given to him during the reading of his late father's will. Rushing back upstairs to the study, he dug around through the drawers of his desk until he found a large ring of old keys. Taking them all with him he quickly and carefully headed back down the secret passageway to the locked door at the end. "Now which one of you little bastards is the one", he mumbled using his flashlight to try different keys on the mysterious door. After nearly a dozen failures he finally found one that fit the lock and turned it.
"Aha!" the door creaked open kicking up a bunch of dust as air came rushing in. Inuyasha pushed through the cobwebs until he found another set of stairs. The stone steps led into a large open room with a high ceiling, cobble stone walls, and a dirty and cracked marble floor. The room contained several shelves and tables covered with old books, papers, bottles of mysterious substances, a few animal skulls here and there, and many other strange objects.
"What the hell is all this?" Inuyasha looked around at the papers and only saw weird symbols and languages he didn't understand. He thought back to what his brother told him about the history of Okami Manor. According to Sesshomaru, Koga Okami was said to have had a deep interest in the practice of magic. It was said in the legends that meddling in black magic was what led to his down fall and death. Now that he thought about it, Inuyasha never bothered to ask Koga how he died. It seemed like an unpleasant subject for him, so he never brought it up around his ghostly boyfriend.
Inuyasha's eyes spotted the black book on a podium in the middle of the chamber. Walking over to it he read the title, 'The World of Spirits'. His curiosity already having taken him this far, he flipped open the book, turning the pages, each one stranger than the last. The book talked a lot about spirits and ghosts, how to control them, bind them, and event he different powers they possessed, some of which were familiar to him having seen Koga display them before. Inuyasha stopped reading when the book suddenly came to life on its own, the pages rapidly turning like they were caught in an invisible wind. The book then violently slammed itself closed starting Inuyasha and making him jump back, only to bump into a shelf knocking things over. The shelf well on top of the white haired dropping numerous books and other items across the floor. When Inuyasha tried to crawl out his hand got caught in what looked like the bony jaws of some animal skull.
"OW! Fuck!" he felt the sharp fangs of the skull pierce his hand making it bleed. Inuyasha pressed his other hand to the wounds to stop the bleeding as he ran out of the hidden chamber up the secret passageway to put a bandage on it. "Hope this doesn't leave a mark", he said as he washed his hand in the bathroom sink.
LATER
"I caught that blood sucking freak trying to sneak in through the back", Koga said sounding pissed as he sat across from Inuyasha at the kitchen table. The white haired man wasn't surprised by the behavior, in fact he wasn't even that shocked originally that Miroku was a vampire. Living with and dating a ghost made it so nothing supernatural surprised him anymore.
"Maybe we should install garlic fences or something", Inuyasha chuckled.
"You should take this seriously, do you know what that leech could do to you?" Koga asked.
"He said he wasn't interested in my blood", Inuyasha tried to defend the guy, which the spirit didn't like one bit.
"And you think that creature can be trusted?" he scoffed in disbelief.
"I trust you", Inuyasha argued. Koga grew silent realizing he was losing, his eyes finally noticed his lover's bandaged hand.
"What happened to your hand?" the ghost asked concerned.
"Just a scratch I got from rummaging around some old stuff", he shrugged not seeing the big deal and failing to mention the secret room where the animal skull's fangs stabbed into his hand.
"Will you be alright?"
"It's fine, just a scratch", Inuyasha assured him it was nothing to worry about. How wrong he was not to worry, but he wouldn't find out till tomorrow. Koga disappeared and rematerialized directly behind the other with his arms wrapped around him. He loved it when Inuyasha tied his hair back making it easier for him to kiss along his neck lovingly.
"You know I don't want anything bad to happen to you, right?" he whispered into the mortal's ear.
"Will you relax, I'm not going anywhere", Inuyasha sighed feeling the ghost's hands start to wander.
"Maybe you should reassure me", Koga said seductively planting a kiss along the other's jaw. "Race you to the bedroom!" he said standing up and disappearing from sight.
"That's not fair! You can phase through the walls!" Inuyasha called as he ran after him. When he arrived in their bedroom Koga was already there on the bed without clothes on waiting for him. Inuyasha quickly took off his shirt and jeans, undid his hair and got in bed with him.
"Want me to do that thing with the multiple hands again?" Koga asked with a smirk as he kissed his way down the other's lean abs.
"Just don't make…me beg like…last time", Inuyasha said in between gasps.
"Your wish is my command", Koga smiled down at him as he snapped his fingers and about ten ghostly copies of his hands began to emerge from the sheets beneath his lover, each caressing and kneeding a part of Inuyasha's body. "God damn, why do you have to be so sexy?"
"Shut up", Inuyasha gasped out.
THE NEXT DAY.
Inuyasha stood in the shower trying to wash his now longer hair. It was the weirdest thing, he woke up this morning and his hair had grown a few inches longer, it wasn't much, but it was noticeable. Not just that, but everything around him seemed so strange. His vision appeared enhanced, he could hear the birds outside as if they were chirping right in his ear, and he could even smell the roses he planted by the front entrance, even while still upstairs in the house.
"Weird", Inuyasha decided not to worry about it, he figured he must have ate something funny or maybe he got his pills mixed up. Throughout the day it seemed this problem was getting worse not better. While he was working in the study he would wince and hold his head as random noises from outside passed through his now hyper sensitive ears. Hearing Koga shout at Miroku finally caused Inuyasha to snap and march his way outside.
"Will you two please", he started seeing Miroku entangled in a tree that Koga was controlling. "SHUT THE HELL UP!"
"I apologize for my behavior", Miroku said politely jumping out of the tree and landing with a bow.
"What crawled up your ass?" Koga asked, in the complete opposite of politeness. Inuyasha turned his yellow eyed glare on him making him flinch, not just from the intensity of his gaze, but the brighter hue of yellow that almost glowed like fire. "Feh! Idiots", he said as he stomped back inside. Koga followed after him, not to apologize, but to find out what's wrong. The sun started to go down as the ghost went looking for his white haired lover. Making his way to their bedroom what he found seriously disturbed him.
Inuyasha lay in the dark writhing on the floor in pain. His hair had nearly doubled in length, spilling chaotically on the floor. His fingernails had grown longer and sharper like claws, scratching the floor. Even his eyes had begun to glow like the sun.
"Koga…what's happening?" he said through clenched teeth showing razor sharp teeth. Koga quickly picked him up and looked him over looking for something, anything that might tell him what's going on.
"I…I don't know", the ghost picked him up and laid him down on the bed. Inuyasha groaned in pain with a strange animal growl laced under his voice. Koga's eyes spotted the mark on his lover's hand, the same wound he questioned him yesterday about and now noticed that it looked suspiciously like teeth marks.
"Where did you get this mark? Tell me please", Koga said with urgency in his voice.
"Hidden room…underneath the library", Inuyasha grimaced as another wave of pain hit him, it took everything he had not to scream in agony. Koga would have paled if he had real skin after hearing that Inuyasha entered his secret room.
"I'll be right back", the spirit literally dived bombed through the floors and walls, passing through the mansion, going straight for the hidden chamber. He found the knocked over shelf and began to frantically dig through the items on the floor. Koga found, much to his horror, an old werewolf skull with Inuyasha's blood still on the fangs. He realized the mortal must have accidentally cut his hand on the teeth and unfortunately despite being long dead, the curse of the wolf could still be transferred through the fangs of the beast. Rushing back upstairs he found Inuyasha in a worse off state than when he left him. Now Inuyasha was back on the floor rolling around in pain as the transformation began.
"Koga…a little…help…please", Inuyasha started coughing up blood now. Koga quickly jumped to his side sitting his poor lover up and holding him against his chest.
"Your experiencing Lycanthropic Metamorphosis", he said pressing his forehead against the back of his head.
"What!?" Inuyasha dug his claws into the floor trying to stop the pain, he could hear his voice changing into a growl and that scared him.
"A werewolf, you're turning into a werewolf", the spirit stated bluntly keeping his arms wrapped tight around him.
"H-how?" Inuyasha ignored the suffering for now, he wanted to know desperately how this happened.
"That skull you cut your hand on was a werewolf skull. Even dead the curse remains and can still be transferred", Koga explained rubbing the other's shoulders to calm him down.
"Can w-we s-stop it?" Inuyasha could feel his ears changing shape slowly and painfully.
"No, no we can't", he replied sadly feeling Inuyasha shivering in both pain and fear. Koga's eyes drifted over to the window where he could see the full moon hovering there as if to mock him. "You listen to me, we have one shot to beat this. You have to force the change to stop before you turn full wolf"
"I d-don't understand", Inuyasha's senses were starting to become sharper.
"Think of your human form, keep thinking about. Imagine what you're supposed to look like, and don't picture a wolf", Inuyasha started breathing heavily in an effort to concentrate and do as he said. "The wolf inside wants you to be scared, I wants you to think about it, that way the transformation will happen faster. Don't let that happen, you're stronger than it Inuyasha", Koga pressed a kiss to the back of his head. Inuyasha let out a scream and the spirit quickly put his forearm against his mouth letting him bite down on him. "It's okay you can't hurt me, I'm already dead. Just don't think about it keep breathing and picturing your human form".
"I'm t-trying", Inuyasha continued to breathe without screaming in agony every few seconds.
"Inuyasha listen to me, you're the strongest person I know, you can do this", Koga assured him, his lover didn't respond which was concerning. Another wave of pain hit Inuyasha as it felt like his bones were now trying to change form. It hurt so much that he couldn't hold back a scream that sounded almost like the howl of a wolf.
"Inuyasha! Stay with me!" Koga shouted trying to keep the person he treasured above everything else a human being and not an unstoppable killing machine. He knew that if Inuyasha did turn into a werewolf he could try and keep him here on the grounds, but if he ever got out Koga wouldn't be able to follow him and stop him from hurting other people or worse save him from getting killed. "Come on don't do this to me now!" he wasn't just yelling at Inuyasha, he was also shouting at whatever god or deity that had long forsaken him.
Hours had passed and still Inuyasha didn't fully transform much to Koga's relief. Right now Inuyasha laid passed out on the bed in his new state. Not much about him had changed except the now longer mane of hair, the claw-like fingernails, yellow eyes that glowed in the darkness, sharp teeth, and the furry triangular wolf ears on his head. Koga watched him like a hawk as he slept, checking to make sure that the werewolf transformation had indeed been halted at this stage. Some sort of hybrid between wolf and man.
"Where am I?" Inuyasha yawned as he rose up from the bed, he noticed his shirt was gone and his pants were nearly torn to shreds. He scratched his head lazily, but stopped suddenly when he felt strange appendages in his hair. It felt like the two fuzzy dog ears, checking where his normal ears would be, he was shocked to find them gone. "What the hell is happening!?"
"Congratulations, you got to keep a human form, well humanoid form at least", Koga shrugged as he sat next to him on the bed. He smiled proudly, he was happy that his love Inuyasha was strong enough to stop the transformation.
"At least!" Inuyasha couldn't believe how nonchalant he was being about this.
"You should consider yourself lucky, it's rare to stop from transforming like you did", a clawed hand passed through his head like smoke.
"What am I going to do about this?" Inuyasha asked pointing at his twitching wolf ears.
"Hm, those should disappear by sunrise along with anything extra", Koga knew that the werewolf only lasted for the night. "However you're going to turn back into this every full moon. I'd suggest not going out anywhere for those nights", he tried to chuckle and make light of the situation despite his lover's fury.
"Is there no way to fix this?" the now half werewolf asked looking at the spirit with glowing yellow eyes.
"Well if I was human I'm sure I could have used some sort of magic to undo the curse, but I can't like this", Koga was now more determined than ever to find his body and rejoin with it. "Inuyasha".
"Wha-", he was cut off when the other kissed him suddenly.
"I'm glad you're okay", Koga sat there and waited with Inuyasha until sunrise, when his form returned to its original state.
Sorry this took so long. It's one of my side stories so I don't work on it as much as I should.
So I've got a ghost, then introduced a vampire, and now Inuyasha is part werewolf, all I need is a Frankenstein monster and I'll have a whole set of Groovy Ghoulies. It's a fantasy genre people, you can make your own rules. This story has an ending planned now, finally. Don't worry it's not for a while.
Thanks for reading.