InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Slayer of Nightmares ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Slayer of Nightmares

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Chapter 5

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"So who's idea was this again?" Buffy said, sounding very tired and not perky at all.

Willow pointed at Xander, who was seated on the hotel room desk.

Xander pointed at Faith, who was leaning against the wall.

Faith pointed at Andrew, who'd straddled a chair backwards -- a pose that would have been much cooler if he didn't currently have a pair of dorky horn-rimmed sunglasses perched, forgotten, on the top of his head.

Andrew pointed at Giles. Giles adjusted his glasses, cleared his throat, and said, "We didn't think ..."

"Yeah. You didn't think." Buffy cut him off. "Spike's alive and you didn't think I should know and this pisses me off a big fat huge amount."

"Technically, he's not alive ..." Andrew tried to interject. Buffy's rather dangerous glare shut him up so quickly that he squeaked.

"How long have you known this?" Buffy said, teeth gritted. She wanted to scream, to throw things, to howl her betrayed anger at them. How dare they keep the fact that Spike was alive from her. After all he'd done, after everything, after he'd saved the world more than once at her side, he still wasn't trusted. It made her want to rage and ... cry.

On the other hand, given all the evidence that Spike had chosen to side against her and with the current Big Bad, maybe they'd been right. Or not. She had faith in Spike and figured something was up, but Spike voluntarily fighting for evil wasn't the answer. He could be ensorcelled or misguided, but not evil -- soul or not. She needed to talk to him. The scars Inuyasha had left on her back still ached every morning when she woke as a firm reminder of just how nasty this particular Big Bad was. He'd damn near disemboweled her from the behind.

"About two and a half years," Giles admitted. "Some of the girls saw him when they retrieved Dana from Wolfram and Hart."

"Wolfram and Hart." Buffy said, flatly. "He was being held by Wolfram and Hart and nobody thought to like tell me?"

Giles sighed and fussed with his glasses, cleaning them on his shirt. "Actually, he was working for Angel. Don't ask me how that came about, I don't have a clue. But they were sighted together several times. It appeared to be voluntary on Spike's part. Which is part of the reason why we didn't tell you, Buffy. Spike's back but we didn't know that he still had his soul."

"That's ... weird, the whole Spike and Angel thing," Buffy admitted. Spike and Angel had been mortal enemies for years. "Okay, so Spike is alive and the world has Spikey goodness again and does anyone have any idea for sure about the soul thing now?"

"Umm." Willow said. "He still has a soul. I could sense it yesterday. That's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah. What about magic on him?"

"Other than the usual? Nothing obvious." Willow had gotten very good at detecting magic in the last few years. Her abilities continued to mature and develop -- which was both a scary thing and a reassuring thing. She was much more responsible with her powers now, but Buffy hadn't entirely forgotten that her best friend was the metaphysical equivalent of a billion gigaton nuclear bomb.

"So Spike was saying something about a letter before he went all karate kid on me ...?" Buffy prompted. She hadn't missed the fact that, while Spike had gotten in some good blows, none of them had been worse than what they'd landed on each other in training, and he'd never gone all grr-arrgh on her. He'd been grinning and enjoying the fight, the jerk. Now she turned her glare entirely on Giles, because he was her mail drop when she was globe trotting on Slayer duties.

He had the good grace to blanch.

"Giles, don't tell me he did send a letter?" Buffy was so not happy about the fact she'd never received said letter.

"Buffy, please understand, we only want what's best for you ..." Giles had his glasses off now and he was wiping them furiously on his shirt.

She narrowed her eyes. "Giles? Give."

He sighed, fished in his pocket, and handed her an opened letter. She wasn't surprised he had it on him; he had to have known how she'd react to finding out her friends had been holding out on her. She turned her attention to the envelope which had a return address to, "William T. Bloody," and a post office box in LA.

"You read it. Giles, that's like so rude!"

He fixed her with an unwavering stare. "If he was warning us of trouble, I did want to know and then you would have been told, Buffy."

"Mph." She stuck the letter in her own pocket. She'd read it later. "Do you know what Spike must be thinking? He sends me a letter and I don't even respond with a postcard 'Hi, the weather's lovely in Paris and I'm so glad you survived saving the world?' Giles, he gave his life for me. Or at least, I thought he did, 'cause flame-y Spike. He ..."

Giles said, sharply, "That's enough, Buffy. We're well aware of what he's done. Trust me, this was discussed. You do not love him, yet you would have gone to him out of a sense of duty. We're sick of seeing you in miserable relationships."

"Yeah, look at what happened with Rebound Boy." That was Faith, who had never liked The Immortal. Or Spike, for that matter.

"And," Giles said, smoothly, "You have responsibilities now, and duties, beyond anything you've had in the past as the leader of all of us. You don't have time for Spike -- but we knew what your reaction would be if you knew he was alive. We hoped by the time you found out that you would have someone else, someone better for you."

"Someone not all fangy," Xander put in. She shot him a glare, but didn't actually mention his track record with dating nonhumans. Losing Anya had hurt too much. As mad as she was with him, she couldn't bring herself to be that cruel.

"Listen to you, oh Prince Charming of Bugs," Willow said, irritably.

Okay, maybe he did have that coming, Buffy said, and made a mental note that Willow was actually semi-defending her here.

"Hey! This isn't me! This is about Buffy's bad choices in boyfriends!" Xander snapped back.

"Two things you guys need to realize here," Buffy said, anger flashing to the surface. "One, Spike was the only person who stood by me in the end. Because you didn't."

A general group wince greeted that statement. She was right, and they knew it. Even Dawn had turned on her -- but Spike had been loyal through everything. He'd inspired her, in the end -- without Spike, would she have ever had the courage to stand up again after they'd kicked her down, and then lead them into Hell itself?

"Not only that, he sought me out and inspired me to keep fighting after you guys beat me down. Do not tell me he's bad for my duties." Buffy flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "And two? I do love the idiot."

"Buffy, be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that Spike's apparently working with the dog demon, and so is a Slayer," Giles said.

"The Slayer's a witch, too," Willow said, unexpectedly. "That's the word on the street, anyway. I've been asking around about her. The demons are scared of her -- apparently, she's pretty lethal with a bow and arrow. Uses magic. "

"Have we seen a Slayer who's a witch before?" Buffy blinked, intrigued -- and worried.

"Only Dana." Willow said, with a long-suffering note in her voice that indicated her opinion of that particular Slayer's talents. But Buffy figured she was probably not a good example, given that she was bug fuck nuts. Buffy had no clue what went on in that dark-haired head, save that it was delightfully violent when channeled towards bad guys and rather impressively scary when aimed at anyone else. The problem with Dana was that she didn't always know who was the bad guy when she was having a vision. Two and a half years of the best therapy money could buy had produced a girl who could, at least answer questions coherently about half the time and only tried to kill her handlers occasionally.

Hmm. Maybe we ought to sic Dana on dog-boy. The results would be interesting, to say the least. Berserker Vs. Lunatic. We could sell tickets as a Watcher's Council fundraiser.

Andrew put in, with a grin that said he was proud of his information network, "Her name's Kagome Higurashi -- she's a student at CalUni. A history major. On an athletic scholarship. She gets good grades. Works mornings in the university library. I've got an address for her apartment. She's from Japan; her parents own a shrine that has a minor portal on the grounds -- the Bone Eater's Well. It appears to have some time travel aspects; we're still trying to find out more information."

Even though she was still pissed at the lot of them, Buffy did feel that work deserved acknowledgement. "Good job, Andrew."

"I live to serve you, milady."

She gave him a look. He grinned. Buffy rolled her eyes, an expression shared by pretty much the entire rest of the Scoobies. Joint eye-rollage. It was almost freaky when she realized they'd all done it.

"How'd you figure that much out?" Willow asked.

"Got a name from a demon. Then I did some detective work worthy of James Bond ..." He squirmed under Buffy's sharp look. "And I found her job resume on an employment Web site. Well, except for the portal bit. Got that from the Japanese branch of the Watcher's Council. Their secretary's cool, by the way. She likes Transformers."

"Ooh, Andrew's got a giiirl frend." Xander purred out, waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up. Just shut up." Andrew glared at Xander. "Not cool. Besides, you know the ladies like me. Unlike you. Have you ever had a girlfriend who was human?"

"Yeah, Xander. Have you?" Buffy asked, sweetly.

He flipped both of them off, one hand in each direction.

"Xander had Transformers Under-roos when he was five," Willow said, brightly. "I remember."

"Willllow!" Xander protested. "Enough with the when-he-was-five stories, okay?"

A firm knock on the door made everyone jump and fall quiet. "Were we expecting anyone?" Willow asked, a worried note in her voice. The two young Slayers assigned to LA had been by earlier; they were off patrolling now. The Scoobies were here solely for dog-demon hunting. Something that was a lot less urgent now that Willow had hit him with her mojo.

"Nope." Buffy couldn't think of anyone who would be calling on them at this late hour. She scooped a stake up off the bed and padded to the hotel room door. After peering through it she grinned and flung it open. Perfect timing.

"Spike!"

"'Lo, Slayer." He looked tired, and he had a black eye from their fight earlier, but he also looked good.

She stood there, for a moment, taking in the relaxed way he was standing. A lot of the nervous tension she'd always associated with him was gone -- he looked comfortable inside his own skin for the first time since she'd known him. The last few years had been good to him -- he was a very far cry from the miserable creature she'd found hiding in the school's basement, insane and tormented, four years ago.

"You pissed at me?" He asked, somewhat carefully. "If you are, hit me and get it over with, 'cause we got to talk, Slayer."

In response, she simply dove at him, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest. She heard his surprised grunt, and knew that wasn't the greeting he was expecting. But she had no intention of ever beating him up again, unless he hit first. "Spike. I thought you were dead."

He went tense, for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her in a hug of greeting. He smelled of cigarette smoke and old leather; the smell was so much Spike that it pulled up a world of memories of this man and all they'd shared -- the good and the bad, during their best times and their worst times, as both friends and enemies. "You're not mad at me about earlier?" He said, with a chuffed laugh, low and throaty.

"I didn't know you were alive, Spike. They knew, they didn't tell me." She leaned back, knowing she had tears streaming down her face and not caring in the slightest. "And duh, mad big time, but I'll get over it."

"How come he gets a 'get out of Jail free card' ..." That was from Xander, behind her. She ignored that. If she acknowledged it, she'd probably hurt Xander.

Spike's thumb wiped the tears away from her cheeks. "I should have figured. For what it's worth, I did try a few times to talk to you in person, but it never worked out. Had other things more important."

"Like saving the world?" She rested her head against the cool, firm muscles of his chest. The faded sports-team logo on his black t-shirt was rough against her cheek, and she felt his fingers stroking her back hesitantly. When he inhaled to respond, she heard the breath whoosh into his lungs.

"Pretty much." He said, then lower -- too low for anyone else to hear, "I've missed you, Slayer."

"Yeah." She murmured into his chest. "My friends are idiots."

"... Including this friend." An amused laugh rumbled in her ear. He tightened his hug for a moment, then released her.

She blinked up at him, surprised beyond measure by those three words. He'd just bluntly called himself her friend. Of course, he had been, for a long time, but she'd never expected such a clear statement from him -- he was many things, but never before simply a friend. And to include himself in the 'idiot' category, even jokingly ... well, that was new and unusual.

He'd changed a lot, she realized, looking up at him. There was a different light in his eyes -- Except the difference wasn't a bad thing -- her instincts were telling her that Spike was very much whole and healthy and sane, too. Confident in himself, and perhaps happier with himself than he'd been in a long time -- perhaps, ever.

"We need to talk," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the Scoobies.

"Yeah." He agreed. "By the way, I brought someone who wants to talk to you."

For a moment, jealousy flared; she half expected the someone to be a girlfriend. And that was apparently the cue for the girl to step forward out of the shadows.

"Kagome," Buffy said, recognizing the other Slayer. She was short -- maybe an inch or two taller than Buffy herself -- and compactly built, with muscles that indicated she'd been working out, and the stance of a warrior. Clear brown eyes regarded Buffy levelly, and with a very large amount of suspicion. She was armed, with a short bow slung over her shoulder, and a quiver full of arrows.

"You got her away from the demon?" Buffy said, making a guess about what had transpired. "What, did he have her ensorcelled or something?"

"Hardly." The girl's Japanese accent was present and accounted for, but her words were easily understandable. "Inuyasha's never been able to keep me from going where I want for very long. He was not happy about this meeting, but Shippou's sitting on him."

"Literally." Spike added, with a snicker. "And from what Shippou -- that's the kitsune -- tells me, Kagome's the one who has Inuyasha bespelled, not the other way around."

Buffy glanced from Spike, to the girl, and back. Spike was grinning; Kagome's expression was closed off, reserved, unreadable. "Let's go for a walk."

"Buffy!" Giles started to protest.

She shot him a look over her shoulder that shut him up. "Giles? Right now, I'm so not listening to you."

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Perhaps predictably, Buffy led the way to a graveyard. Spike didn't seem surprised by this; he followed Buffy over the graveyard fence without comment. Kagome scrambled over after them, somewhat impressed by the other woman's easy grace. Buffy had a lot more training than she did, Kagome realized; it was obvious simply in the way she moved.

The woman was short, extremely fit, tough. It was also abundantly clear that she and Spike were very good friends. Lovers maybe, she thought, watching the body language between them.

"So, Buffy, why don't you start and tell Kagome exactly what started this mess with Inuyasha," Spike said, lighting a cigarette. He took a drag off it, then commented, "I've talked to Inuyasha -- he's an angsty little fuck, but he doesn't strike me as exactly the blindly homicidal type. Mad as hell at the moment, but he might actually have a reason I agree with.."

Kagome moved upwind of Spike, trying to be subtle about it. She was used to smokers -- more people smoked in Japan than the US, by far -- but that didn't mean she was fond of the scent, and Spike seemed to prefer a particularly vile brand.

Buffy's eyes flashed with anger. "Spike ... you don't know what happened."

"Inuyasha seems to have some unusual ideas about Slayers. He was convinced you'd kill Kagome the moment you saw her." Spike pointed at Kagome with the cigarette. "She wasn't joking about the kitsune needing to sit on him. He was ready to take you on again to defend her, and he's human right now."

Buffy sighed. "I'm not going to kill another Slayer, Spike. You know that."

"I know that. But are you gonna trust another one's judgment? Someone who knows Inuyasha a hell of a lot better than you do? Because Kagome's got a track record on fighting bad guys that just might be longer than yours, Buffy." Spike took a drag on the cigarette. "Have Rupert or Andrew look up Naraku in those databases of theirs -- they might find it illuminating. And you might find out about who Inuyasha is too."

Kagome blinked. Glanced sideways at Spike. He knows about Naraku? How much does he know?

Spike took a long pull on the cigarette. "Buffy, I can read, you know. Took me about three hours to dig up what I needed to know on Kagome and confirm what she told me was true. Most of it's in Magipedia, online, ya know? And she's quite well recorded in some journals by a lady named Kaede ..."

Bless Kaede, Kagome thought, missing the old miko with sudden deep sorrow. Then she was distracted by the look on Buffy's face -- she was profoundly unhappy, her face set in a deep scowl. Oh, he's spanking her good on this. These two must go way back -- and they truly respect each other. She values his opinion quite a bit and he's not shy about telling her when she's in the wrong. These two see each other as equals.

"There's some translations out there. Chibi here's been fighting demons since she was a teenager, which would be since before she was a Slayer -- only Potential I've run into who was already qualified for the job when she got it. And she was doing most of that fighting at Inuyasha's side. She says he's one of the good guys." Spike made a loose gesture with the cigarette, the very tip a glowing swirl of red light in the dark, in Kagome's direction. "Given what I've read, she's probably right."

"That good guy nearly killed me." Buffy snorted, finally finding her voice. "He did kill Kennedy, who was with me that day, and every other Slayer he's run across."

"So what did you do to him?" Kagome asked, quietly. Something had gone very wrong here. "What started the fight?"

Buffy shrugged. "Kennedy and I were just out at a bar -- Wil was going to join us later. I heard a fight, went to go take a look, and dog-boy was attacking a couple of human men."

Wonder what they did to Inuyasha to start it? Kagome thought, irritably. She said aloud, "Something you need to know about Inuyasha -- he never starts a fight -- but he will definitely finish one if he's provoked. "

Buffy shrugged. "I told him to leave. Instead of being a good little demon, he got in a fight with two Slayers. Like, how stupid is that?"

Kagome swallowed back an incredulous laugh, and said, "I see your head is still attached to your shoulders. Inuyasha was seriously pulling his blows. If he wanted to hurt you, you'd have been dead before your body hit the ground. Also, I would be very surprised if it was Inuyasha who threw the first punch, Buffy."

Inuyasha couldn't have liked being told to scram by a human girl -- particularly if he thought it was unjustified. He probably took it personally, and lost his temper. Stupid, but that's dog-boy for you. But she hit him first, I can guarantee it.

Buffy tossed her hair back. "Fight went messy in a hurry. Kennedy took out the red-haired demon who was with us. Took her head off. It was yucky and everything."

"That would have been Amelia, who was Inuyasha's wife of four hundred and fifty years. I can end this story now -- he probably went youkai on you and tried to kill both of you." Took her head off. Kami-sama, Inuyasha probably saw that. I would only be surprised if he hadn't killed this Kennedy girl. And I'm amazed Buffy survived. Inuyasha's more than a match for a score of Slayers, never mind two, and that's without his demon surfacing fully!

"Did kill Kennedy." Buffy sounded sullen now. "Ripped me to shreds. Only reason I survived was that the bartender shot him about six times and he ran off."

Bullets wouldn't have stopped Inuyasha, but the shock might have done something to slow him down -- even I can't predict what he'll do if he's gone fully demon, Kagome thought. She was rapidly deciding she didn't like Buffy much; the descriptions of the terrible tragedy were too flippant. It's a defense mechanism, but I really don't appreciate it. It's tactless and rude.

"I don't know much about Amelia," Kagome said, quietly, summoning every bit of control she'd had not to tell Buffy what she really thought of her, "But I know Inuyasha. If he loved her for four hundred and fifty years, she was a remarkable woman. Because Inuyasha tends to have very good taste in friends. You've done something terrible, Buffy." Kagome glanced at Spike, whose face was impassive. Spike stubbed the cigarette out on a headstone while she watched.

Buffy said, somewhat mulishly, "She was a demon. I'm a Slayer. It's what I do." The thing was, Buffy didn't sound very sure of that anymore.

Spike asked, "So what happened with the rest of the Slayers?"

"He's been hunting us." Buffy said, anger flaring. "He ambushed most of them and killed them. A small squad of Slayers caught up with him once and he killed all four girls."

"I'm not surprised. Were all those girls looking for him?" Kagome wondered what Inuyasha's side of the story was. "You hit, he hits back. Pretty simple. I believe the English expression is 'tit for tat' and as angry as he is about Amelia, he'd kill -- he's never been a killer before, at least not of humans, but you made him one. And now you hunt him and he hunts you and it's a vicious cycle."

Hatfields and McCoys, Kagome thought, remembering a bit of American history she'd learned in a recent college class. Kami-sama, it's not going to stop until dog-boy's dead or they are, not unless I can convince Buffy to back off and give me a chance to reason with Inuyasha.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Buffy demanded. "I've got some uber-bad-ass monster killing my girls. Am I supposed to just say, 'sorry we killed your little girlfriend, now let's be friends?' -- Spike, Wil damn near went critical on us for a second time over Kennedy. This is so not of the good, you know that."

Kagome wasn't sure what that meant, but Spike apparently knew. He grunted, "She didn't, though -- and I'm surprised she hasn't taken Rapunzel out by now."

"Oh, she has." Buffy said, voice soft. "It just took us this long to find him -- he's almost impossible to find with a locator spell."

"She ... has." Kagome said, flatly, remembering hair coming out in her hands when she'd touched Inuyasha's hair. She shuddered at the memory

"What? What did Red do?" Spike said, suddenly alarmed.

Kagome, miko, said a very bad word. She was mostly untrained, but she wasn't stupid and she'd feared this since the afternoon. "The spell. It suppresses his demon half ... without that to sustain him ..."

His human half is seven hundred years old. It won't be instant -- but it'll be ugly.

Buffy's eyes were almost sympathetic. "Wil says he has a week or two at tops before his body shuts down. I'm actually sorry, Kagome -- but he's proven he's a killer twelve times over and part of my job is making the tough decisions." She paused, and added a bit bitterly, "Sometimes, the level of suckage is rather much."

"You haven't the right!" Kagome lunged towards Buffy, intending to hit her as hard as she could.

Spike's hand came down on her shoulder, hard. She hadn't even seen him move. His grip was like iron. "Don't. Buffy would win, Chibi." He then said, in a rather quiet tone of voice to Buffy, "You need somebody to sacrifice themselves to close another Hellmouth? Gimme a call. I'm in the phone book. You want to trust me? You want to do the right thing? You can call me then, too."

"Spike!" Buffy said, sounding outraged when he turned his back and walked away.

He didn't say a word. By the expression on Buffy's face, he didn't have to. Ouch, Kagome said, feeling a little sorry for the woman despite everything. She loves him. Funny, you'd never expect to see a vampire take the moral high ground!

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Shippou was waiting when she returned home -- she was alone, Spike had muttered something about going to kill something that needed killing and vanished on the way back to her apartment. She trusted his judgment on appropriate monsters to kill was better than that of his girlfriend.

Shippou was himself. She blinked at him, easily recognizing him now that he'd shed his human-appearing form. He was red-haired and fox-tailed, and a good six inches shorter than he'd seemed earlier. He was also dressed in a kimono and hakama, looking quite traditional. If he'd looked like that when she'd seen him the first time there would have been no doubt in her mind who he was.

"LA-con starts tonight," he said, with a wink. "Everybody just thinks I'm a furry and they want to know how my feet work." He pointed down at his fox paws. "I win hall costume awards all the time at cons." Then he sobered, and said, "Seriously, I figured you might want some time alone with Inuyasha -- I'll be back tomorrow evening. Call my cel phone if you need me -- the con's not that important, but there's a couple people who might be there that I'm hoping to run into."

She nodded understanding.

He continued, "Inuyasha's asleep in your bed. He's been sleeping all evening, said he didn't feel well. He didn't even wake up when I checked on him a couple of times."

"Shippou ..." Kagome started to say, to confide in him.

"You will find a way to help him, won't you?" The kitsune's eyes searched her face. "Somehow?"

"I promise you." Shippou had always been perceptive -- sometimes, preternaturally so. She thought he hadn't lost that sensitivity; adulthood had only granted him better manners and more knowledge of people's motivations. He's a good friend. I wonder why he remembers so clearly and Inuyasha does not? Perhaps it is simply that he is fully youkai and Inuyasha is partly human.

He squeezed her shoulder briefly. "I think I said this before, Kagome, but I have missed you and it's good to have you back with us."

"Thanks." She gave him a hug. "I'll give you a call if anything comes up. Be careful out there, will you?"

He nodded and left, pulling the door shut very quietly after him.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, after Shippou had left. So he hadn't been sleeping, or he'd just woken. His voice was low, and somehow urgent.

"How are you feeling?" She walked to the bedroom door and pushed it open.

"Been better." The light from the living room was enough to see him clearly by -- his hair was an inky curtain across the pillow, and he was propped up on one elbow. Given this was Inuyasha, who referred to major injuries as "scratches" she translated that 'been better' to 'I feel like hell.' Or, possibly, 'I'm scared to death.' Maybe the latter; his emotions had always been both his strength and his weakness.

"Inuyasha ..." she said, quietly, "There's something you should know."

"I'm dying." His voice was hoarse, thick; not from sickness, but rather raw fear closing his throat up. "My human body can't sustain itself for very long; it's just too old."

He knew. Kami-sama, he knew. "When did you realize?"

"Earlier today, when I started shedding." There was silence, for a moment, then in an even softer voice he said, "Kagome, I ... I don't want to be alone. You will stay with me? Until -- until the end?"

"Of course! But I'm going to find a way to bring your demon powers back." She sat down on the edge of the bed and said calmly, "I'm not going to let you die."

"Keh. Might be best if I do." He slumped back on the mattress, putting his face into the shadows of the light from the doorway

She reached out to feel his forehead -- he was cool, and her miko powers assured her that he wasn't in any great distress. She suspected he had a few good days left before vital organs started to completely shut down. It'll eventually be a tossup if he dies of kidney and liver failure or infection.

She needed to check his wound. His hair was falling out because his cells weren't replicating like they should. That likely meant his immune system was useless too -- he'd be wide open to nasty germs. If he gets something growing that's antiobiotic resistant, he could be gone in hours. She needed to get him on antiobiotics -- fortunately, she had a stash of several types from runs down to Mexico. Sometimes she needed them for herself, after getting cut up and doused in demon guts.

"What's the phase of the moon right now?" she asked, quietly. She knew, approximately -- it's the last quarter, thank Gods -- but Inuyasha could tell her exactly. He had a vested interest in knowing.

"It's five days until the new. What are you thinking?" His voice was warm and low in the darkness.

"The spell she cast upon you -- I can see the shape of it. It's drawing strength from your youkai half. The stronger your demon side is, the stronger the spell itself is. So I think it'll be easiest to break on the night of the new moon." She added, after a moment in which he lay there, too quiet. "The witch who cast it is much more powerful than I could ever be. And far better trained,"

"Tell me about it. It's white magic, too. I can feel it," he grumbled.

"Yes. Were it dark and evil, I could purify it. How do break a spell as clean and pure as this? It's a spell designed to exorcise a demon, and it's done properly, with the purest of intentions." Kagome said, "The witch who did it believed she was doing the right thing."

He moved, sheets rustling. She realized he'd rolled over onto his side, away from her. His voice was very small. "Maybe I gave her reason to believe it."

"Maybe you did. The first Slayer you killed, Inuyasha, was her lover. It's the second time she's lost a lover to violence, according to Spike." Spike had told Kagome a few other things about Willow -- powerful didn't even begin to describe a woman who could nigh destroy the earth if she chose.

"Crap. I sure know to pick my enemies."

"Yeah." She got up on her knees. "Scoot over, Inuyasha."

"Huh? Kagome ..." His voice held alarm, and she almost snickered.

"Relax, dog-boy. I'm not going to jump your bones. This is my bed, though, and I'm not sleeping on the couch. And the couch is short; you don't fit on it very well." She tried to convince him -- and herself -- that was the only reason. She didn't think she was doing a very good job on either count.

"Keh." But he moved over, somewhat to her surprise. She noted he was moving stiffly; the deep cut on his chest was probably sore. Tussling -- literally -- with Shippou earlier certainly hadn't helped.

She slid in under the covers, fully clothed. The blankets were warm from his presence; the pillow smelled of him. For a long moment, they lay in silence. Then she said, "You used to keep watch over me. Sleeping in a tree, or up against a wall. You made me feel so safe."

"Can't do much now." A grumble. "I'm deaf, too, and my nose don't work. I hate it."

"I can take care of myself now."

"Keh." He grumbled something under his breath. It sounded like it had Amelia in it.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I said that Amelia thought she could take care of herself too." He paused, and took a ragged breath "Mostly, she could."

"Shh. You don't need to talk about it."

He rolled over, suddenly, and fumbled his arms around her, and pulled her close to his chest. She squeaked in surprise, and he said, "Shh. I'm not jumping you, either. I just want ... I want to hold on to you again. It helps."

"Oh. Uh, sure."

After a moment, he said quietly, "Amelia and I were at a place called 'Footloose' -- it's a bar, plays music, got a dance floor. Amelia liked it. She liked to dance."

She wondered about his sensitive ears and nose in a place like that. And if he danced too -- had Amelia managed to coax him out on occasion? He had the coordination and athleticism to shine on a dance floor, but she had a hard time picturing him actually doing it. If I were to try to get him to dance, I'd tell him I didn't think he could, and then he'd have to prove me wrong. Voila. Dancing Inuyasha.

She still couldn't picture it. Well, she could -- she could see him all amber eyes and long flowing white hair, moving to the music, athletic and gorgeous. If he did it regularly, he'd have a fan club who waited and watched for him to move out, who sighed over him. Admirers. I just can't imagine him doing it.

He sighed, his breath warm against her cheek. "We were regulars. I should have bought stock in the company that made cotton balls ..."

She giggled. "I was curious how you handled the loud music."

He chuffed a laugh, and his arms tightened around her. "The chance to watch Amelia always made me willing to put up with the crowds. Amelia loved people. She was so social -- she had so many friends. She was always the most beautiful when she was surrounded by people -- she always looked the most alive, you know? And people were drawn to her. I know I was ... to this day, I don't know why she fell for me, of all people, because she could have had her pick of anyone. You know what I'm like."

"Yeah. Loyal, brave, devoted, and rather handsome? In addition to being a walking attitude problem."

Once, she would have had to define 'attitude problem' to him. Now, however, he just grunted in apparent agreement, "Heh. Anyway, we were regulars there. The staff knew us -- they knew we weren't human, but Amelia could charm anyone, and they not only tolerated us, but the owner considered us friends. They were good people. I used to clean up, sometimes, help out after closing -- didn't need the money, but they needed the help. A lot of the other regulars were friendly with us too -- we went almost every Friday night. It was a good place to be."

His voice was distant; she knew he was remembering a happy time. It wasn't something she would have imagined him doing, really; he'd always been a bit aloof, in her time. But if his wife enjoyed going out, she could see him following.

There was silence, for a moment, from him. He was very still before continuing. "That particular night there were some new guys making trouble at the bar -- badass types, you know? Footloose had a couple of big sturdy bouncers, but one had called in sick and the other guy was overmatched. The owner had asked if I'd help out earlier if he needed it -- wasn't the first time he'd asked for that."

"Anyway, the guys were drunk and were harassing a woman and they needed to leave." Inuyasha fell silent, for a moment. "I figured it was going to be easy. It was a bit of a fight but nothing major -- Ferdinand, the bouncer, was shoving one guy out the door and I was keeping the other two occupied for him when these two girls took it entirely the wrong way and got in my face."

His voice turned bitter. "Because I wasn't human, they told me to get lost. They assumed I was attacking the men. They told me I didn't belong there. Kagome, I was welcome at Footloose. The blond one -- Buffy -- threatened to kill me if she ever saw me in Footloose again."

Inuyasha exhaled a ragged breath. "I told her to go fuck off. She grabbed my shirt and punched me in the gut -- at which point, I realized she wasn't entirely human. She hits hard. So I grabbed her. I figured I'd toss her and her friend out too. Didn't know exactly what she was, but she was making trouble ..." His grip tightened on Kagome. She heard him swallow noisily, and his breath caught in his chest for just a moment.

"Anyway, she put me through the bar. Broken glass everywhere and I liked to pass out from the stink of booze. Pissed me off. I was going to take her down, at that point; went after her seriously. Unfortunately, she had a wooden stake in her hand and I didn't realize it and she got me in the gut." That wouldn't have been a stopping blow for Inuyasha, but it would have hurt and it would have slowed him down.

"Amelia attacked Buffy at that point -- she was a pretty good fighter in her own right, and her youkai was coming out to play because I was hurt." He exhaled raggedly. "Amelia was tying to take Buffy down and the other Slayer got her from behind with a bowie knife. Took ... took ..."

Took her head off. And Inuyasha saw it.

"I know. I heard." He didn't need to tell her anymore. She didn't want to hear.

"There was so, so much blood. Everywhere. And the body ... the body was twitching. Her eyes were looking at me. She blinked a couple of times, rolled her eyes towards me. I think ... I think she had time to see me, before ..." He shuddered violently and clutched Kagome to him with desperate strength. "I don't remember much of what happened after that. I came back to myself in an alley hours later -- I'd been shot, but I don't even remember it."

"The bartender shot you." Kagome said, quietly.

"I haven't been back. I don't even know what happened to her body. The bartender shot me?"

"That's what Buffy said."

He growled in response to the woman's name, and the reminder of where Kagome had been that evening. "He was a friend. Fuck, I must have scared him so badly ... I killed a girl in front of him ..." Inuyasha shivered violently. "I miss Amelia so much. I see that ... I see her eyes looking at me ... I see the blood. Every night, I dream of that. I can't lose the image. It'll be with me to the day I die."

Suddenly he lunged to his feet and ran into the bathroom. She wasn't surprised to hear him vomit; she sat up, and snapped on the bedside light. The sheets were covered in fine black hairs. Shit.

She got up, padded into the kitchen, and started a pot of tea. It looked like it was going to be another long night. I hate Buffy, for this. Her world's so simple -- see monster, kill monster. But it's never that simple. I bet they laughed and congratulated themselves after the they murdered her. Thought they'd done a great thing.

After several minutes, Inuyasha emerged, looking pale and drawn. He accepted the tea she offered him without comment. He blew on it, sipped it, and then flopped on the couch. Then, finally, he said, "My nose says Slayers have a bit of demon in them. Did you know that? It comes with their power."

Kagome, miko, blinked at that. "Really?" A slow smile spread across her face. "I'll remember that the next time I get a chance to kick Buffy's ass."

Inuyasha downed his tea, suddenly, and stood back up. "Kagome, let's go out. I'm not sure I've got all that much time left -- let's just go do something fun."

She glanced at the clock. It was eleven. For LA, that wasn't all that late. And -- do something fun with Inuyasha. It was obviously an impulsive move on his part; his eyes were wary, scared, and somehow very lonely.

"Sure, let's go. Meal and a movie?"

He nodded agreement. It was something totally normal, like she'd do with any guy -- perhaps he, too, was desiring the normalcy. I know so little about him. What's normal for Inuyasha anymore?