InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Nightwalker ❯ Altercation ( Chapter 26 )

School starts on Wednesday so, I thought, “Finish another chapter before you take Chemistry!” Anyway, This chapter happens to be the one you've all been waiting for, well, leads to the one you've been waiting for. Either way, I will say this now. I'm a sap and I love happy endings, not that this is the end. So please! Stick with me till the end!

 

This chapter marks the beginning of the end.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, nor do I take credit for Romiko Takahashi's genius! Come on! I can't draw/write THAT well.

 

 

Part Twenty-Six: Altercation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images surrounded her, flashing by like photographs blowing in the wind. Dreamlike understanding entered her mind, explaining the pictures but when she focused on the information, confusion came rather then explanation. In this unconscious haze, she was body-less. Curiosity brought her closer to the realization that would lead her to awaken. Quickly and yet eerily slowly, pain accompanied her trip into wakefulness.

 

At first the buzzing sound sounded distant but as the pain became more potent and as she began to feel her own breathing, she realized that she was lying down and that she was alive. The realization made her eyes flash open and she regretted the action immediately.

 

The groan escaped her throat involuntarily.

 

“You're awake.” A statement or a question, she couldn't tell.

 

“How's the pain?” Something silvery appeared in her blurred eyes.

 

“Inuyasha?” She croaked. She heard him exhale.

 

“Where am I?”

 

“Home.”

 

She tried sitting, but a hole in her center stopped her as well as his hand on her shoulder. “What happened?”

 

“You tell me.” Inuyasha sighed. “I felt that you were in danger, but when I arrived…who attacked you?”

 

At first she had no idea what he was speaking of, but a brief glimpse into what her dream had been telling her, what it had revealed to her, make her spring to a sit, ignoring the magma that was burning her heart. “Kagome!”

 

Lilliana turned her head at Inuyasha and frantically asked, “Where is she?”

 

“Don't worry about that, you need to heal. It's a miracle you're still alive.” He pushed her back down.

 

Lilliana clutched his sleeve. “But Inuyasha, she could be dead right now! Do you know who has her?”

 

“She's not dead.”

 

“How do you know?” She demanded.

 

“Because I'm not dead.”

 

“What do you mean?” Lilliana mumbled, slumping back into the bedding.

 

He must have been more concerned about pressing matters, because he asked, “Narek was the one that did this, wasn't he?”

 

A torrent of headache causing flashes slipped through Lilliana's mind like a bolt of lightening. Narek's face, his kiss right before he bit her, and the lost look in his eyes. Those eyes weren't so inexpressive once. “I don't know where he's taken her, but he's…”

 

“He's what?”

 

Lilliana didn't answer. Did she know Narek like she thought she did, or was it another trick of his? For that matter, why was she alive? Narek made it a point to kill her. He was always consistent, why was she the exception? Another rumble of thunder banged in Lilliana's head. This time, sounds instead of portraits explained things.

 

“You need to sleep. There's more then just that cut on your heart to heal.” The morbid tone of his voice alerted her.

 

As he turned to leave, she grabbed his sleeve again. “Who?”

 

“Go to sleep.” He insisted.

 

Lilliana rose to a sit again. “Tell me!”

 

He'd been right. The words kept her from sleeping and she lay there, enjoying the ache from her wounds because it offered a strange comfort in comparison to the emotional anguish. The pain kept her from crying. So much bad news in such a short amount of time, she thought sadly.

 

Inuyasha, what did he feel? Kagome was taken, Natalia wad dead, killed by the same man who almost killed her. He'd crossed her on his way to kill me. Lilliana thought with certainty. The family was a wreck. She had no doubt that Claire was somewhere in the house with red, puffy eyes. On their way back to the house to help, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru had also lost Bill. How could he be in two places at once? When will he stop taking family members away from them? And he wasn't done. If Narek also killed Kagome, he'd be taking Inuyasha's life as well.

 

Lilliana forced herself up. Her chest swelled in protest and her head felt as though it were filled with cotton. Clutching the wall, she forced her legs forward. A brief look told her she was in her own room. Stumbling, she opened a drawer close to the bed and pulled out an ancient book.

 

Dust flew off the pages as she flipped through it desperately till her finger paused a likely paragraph. She read over the sentences three times before the book fell from her hands. Holding her chest, Lilliana tried to force down the blood in her throat. Inuyasha felt the changes. It made sense. No wonder his temperature had risen where it should have fallen. The epidemic of his addiction had started and he didn't even know how dire the situation was! Lilliana held her bloody shirt. The sooner she was mobile the better.

 

“Lilliana! What are you doing, get back in bed!” Rukiya ordered when she saw the wounded nightwalker trying to go down the steps. She caught her about the waist and hoisted her up.

 

“Put me down, Rukiya! I have to go!”

 

“Go and let that cut take more life from you? No, you're staying here!” Rukiya didn't flinch when Lilliana tugged hard on her long braid in an act of rebellion.

 

“I have to go find Narek!”

 

“Are you stupid? Do you want him to kill you?”

 

“But, Rukiya, he knows!”

 

Rukiya stopped in her march to Lilliana's room. “Knows what?”

 

“Put me down! I have to go search for Narek and Kagome. I can't let him kill her.”

 

“Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are already attending to that! Any more struggling out of you and I will chain you to the bed!”

 

Rukiya put her down gently and once Lilliana felt the mattress beneath her, she lost her stamina. Her entire body ached and twitched as though a thousand tiny drums all over her were being beaten, while the wound in her chest was like someone had taken a hot metal stick out of the fire and pressed it into her. She turned her head to Rukiya.

 

“Rest is what you need, not to run around and play hero while your life is on the line. Natalia and Bill were taken by him, I don't want you to be lost too.” The elder nightwalker's voice broke. Lilliana heard the door shut and the click of a lock following it.

 

Rukiya's logic wasn't misplaced, but neither was Lilliana's knowledge. Even so, she could do nothing in her weakened state but think and blink. Close, heal, revitalize, revive, stand, search, save, Lilliana chanted in her mind. Trying to will herself to get better, she felt more powerless then befor.

 

For three hours Lilliana stared at the ceiling, fighting the urge to sleep and meditating against the fire in her chest. Unable to move and damaged from the encounter with Narek, she had cried several times from the helplessness that covered her, until she could do nothing but lie thoughtlessly. For a while she took in the silence and then opened her weak vocal cords to song. If only the melody could do more then comfort her emotional pain.

 

She'd been so focused on what she was singing, she didn't notice her pain ebb away like an undulating high tide retreating into a low current. At first, she believed it was numbness, but when Lilliana was able to lift her hand without the overwhelming fatigue, she sat up and touched her chest. Soft, fleshy, new skin greeted her fingers. Looking down, all that remained of her injury was the blood on her clothing.

 

Lilliana was across the room in seconds, switching garments. The movement had her blood pumping and adrenaline woke her mind. She had no time to ponder how she had healed herself; she needed to find Narek, for now it was clear that only she could reach him somehow. With her newfound power, Lilliana planned to attack Narek with the one weakness he tried to hide.

 

Hoping her scent in the room was strong enough to trick Rukiya into believing she was still here, Lilliana opened her window and embraced the chilly wind. She hoped that the breeze would bring her Kagome's scent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One wrong move and she'd be flattened on the road next to the skeleton of the building she'd been placed on. No way down and no way to escape without snapping her neck. She felt like a helpless fledgling, unable to fly from this nest and dependent on other birds. She couldn't even look down to the road below without seeing the sight blur in her eyes. Kagome felt as though the air was solid and closing in on her on all sides like a shrinking room. The terror didn't help her in this fatal cage.

 

However, it was accompanied by a partial sense of relief, for she was alone. Other then falling from the top of the construction site, there was no threat to kill her here, unless her captor decided to make himself, or herself, known. Even further, next to her strange reprieve, were the frantic thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her.

 

Kagome's mind had become ambivalent. While she could ponder for her own safety and how she wound up at the top of an unfinished building in the middle of the night, she couldn't help but wonder what happened to her comrades. Lilliana and Claire? Were they still alive? What about Inuyasha and the others?

 

Kagome felt exposed, sitting by herself in the dead of night where any nonhuman being could see her. It was like being naked among cutthroats.

 

“Whoa!” She clutched the iron bar she'd been holding for balance. Whoever put her up here was clever. Unless a family member found her, her only choice was to wait or be a pancake on the street. And so Kagome had waited, worried and despaired. So when a figure did appear on her lowly set of beams, Kagome felt a paradoxical emotion.

 

Glad to see someone that could remove her safely from this position and horrified to know that her place on the ground would be short lived. “So this is where he placed you. Quite an idea, wouldn't you say? You can't advance or retreat, and the family can't come near you.”

 

Revulsion for this woman gave Kagome a twisted sense of courage. “Tell Narek that if he wants to kill me, he should do it himself and not wait for me to commit suicide.”

 

“Interesting.” Fenrir said, standing on one foot on a thin beam as though mocking her. “Wouldn't you want to take your own life then let someone else steal it from you?”

 

“I'll never take my own life. If I killed myself instead of facing you bastards, it would be like I'm taking a coward's way out.” Kagome hissed.

 

“Hmm.” Fenrir jumped from beam to beam. “You preach too much. I find it hard to believe that you were the one that aided in killing Hakudoshi.”

 

“Stop beating around the bush. Why are you here?” It was foolish to raise her voice in impudence; angering Fenrir wouldn't help her situation, but that did not mean Kagome was willing to cower under Fenrir's moonlight shadow. Compared to Narek, Fenrir was like a poisonous spider next to a quick and dexterous cobra, treacherous, but not as frightening.

 

“I'm simply here to watch you while our faithful terrier reports to his master.”

 

“`His master?' Isn't he your king too?”

 

“Not for long. But what do I care? If I had my way, I'd push you and watch your bones break when you hit the floor.” Kagome tried to keep the cringe from showing on her face. Remember, like a spider. She reminded herself.

 

“Or, I could set you free. It would be so much fun to watch Narek chase you down.”

 

“Yeah right. What's the catch?” Kagome's fingers tightened around the edges of the beam beneath her.

 

“Just the enjoyment of-”

 

“You know,” Narek said as he jumped onto the iron behind Fenrir, “rather then fetch her so I can entertain you, why don't I just destroy that drum in your chest. Then I wouldn't have to deal with your constant nonsense.”

 

Fenrir shrugged. “So,” she said in a singsong voice, “what did the boss say?”

 

“Nothing as of yet. Your shift is over. You may leave.” Narek replied without emotion.

 

“Oh that's too bad.” Fenrir skipped along the beams. “I would have loved to see the rest of the show.” She jumped off and was gone within moments.

 

Though the snake wasn't hissing, Kagome still wanted to back away from those fangs. Jumping off the building seemed tempting, even though it was foolish. Narek didn't move, his eyes shadowed by a curtain of curly, black hair, but Kagome could still feel his gaze on her. She looked down into the bones of the building.

 

“One mishap and you'd be a pile of blood and tissue on the ground.” Narek warned her.

 

“Why haven't you killed me yet?” Kagome chocked out. “Is it because your boss said to keep me alive for the time being? What would he do to you if I did jump? How much trouble would you be if I died?” Hatred fueled her words as they had done with Fenrir. Kagome's anger overrode her fear.

 

“I can simply sever the medulla oblongata in your brain, killing you instantly but since I've been ordered to let you live, I shall…for the time being.”

 

The cold stab of fright returned with Narek's words. Kagome did not say anymore. Time became as slow as a dream while Kagome watched Narek, contemplating escape from the impossible setting. Narek closed his eyes and spared her the flinch she would get across her face whenever he spoke. For a little while Kagome thought he'd been asleep, until she'd make a single move and his eyes would shoot open and focus on her like a sniper's laser.

 

Finally, Kagome's patience and restraint snapped. “What do you want!” She barked as she struggled to stand.

 

“I want nothing from you.” Narek said calmly.

 

“Then why the hell am I here?”

 

“Consider yourself a guest of sorts. Be quiet and wait.”

 

“For what?” Kagome laughed humorlessly. Her voice trembled. “I'm supposed to quietly wait to die!”

 

“If you keep you're voice like that, he just might kill you himself. What an honor.” Narek's lips twitched but he did not smile, but Kagome felt her face become stone. Her jaw tightened, tapping her teeth together. “He?” She said in a huff of air.

 

“His majesty wants to meet you.” Narek must have noticed the color on Kagome's face for he next said, “I would avoid confrontation or any kind of derision on your part, unless you have a taste for pain.”

 

Kagome bit her tongue. Seconds became daunting as she stared again at Narek. Unable to plot an escape, her mind wondered. She imagined herself dead, lying on the floor in a flesh heap, she saw Inuyasha weakening without her blood, she thought about her parents and what they felt toward her disappearance from Tokyo, she thought about the family and how they would react to this dumb human's end, but most of all, she thought about how he would feel if she was gone.

 

“You have some imagination.”

 

Her head snapped about, searching for that unfamiliar voice. Narek stood straight as though he had rigor mortis. Conclusion came into Kagome and she felt her breathing speed. This time, she slowly brought herself back down to sit on the beam, fearful that her hyperventilating would cause her to fall and have a premature death.

 

She waited for the voice to become a person. She looked about several times with wide eyes, till her irises began to sting. She blinked and the first thing she noticed the next moment was that Narek was on his knees in some sort of bow. Then Kagome felt another pair of eyes on her and the Nightwalker king walked into her vision.

 

“I was expecting a beautiful woman not a plain child.”

 

Kagome stared. She felt nothing but disbelief, no fear, nor anger or panic, for what she was staring at was the spitting image of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. This man, demon, was taller, his hair to his knees, a single blue, horizontal stripe under each dark, gold eye, and his being radiated danger.

 

“How old are you, girl?” He asked.

 

“Twenty.” Kagome replied like a programmed automaton. She felt dull-minded, as though she were unable to perform complex thought.

 

“Do you fear me?” The King asked.

 

“I'm not sure.”

 

“Ah, that's right.” He lifted a clawed hand and Kagome felt something lift from her skull. Then all her emotions came barreling back. “And now?” The king asked again.

 

Instead of explaining her emotions, Kagome simply said, “Who are you?”

 

The King's eyes narrowed. “Are you incompetent?”

 

“You look, just like them.” Kagome said between gasps; her unsteady breathing had returned.

 

“Answer my question girl.” Though he had not raised his voice, the force and arrogant authority that coated it made Kagome wince. “Don't make me ask again.”

 

Kagome opened her mouth, breathed in, and tried to speak without stuttering but failed miserably. “Yes.”

 

“Hmm, I see. I almost feel insulted that knowledge of my presence is known by the likes of you. I don't know what disgusts me more. The idea that Sesshoumaru's `family' is guarding you like a precious jewel is repulsive. Nightwalkers protecting a sordid human…how nauseating. It only proves that Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are complete failures!” The King rebuked.

 

A tiny flick of anger bubbled underneath Kagome's fear, but she didn't dare say anything.

 

“I sense you want something. Speak!”

 

Kagome recoiled, and did as she was told. “They are a lot better then you.” She said slowly.

 

“Why is that?”

 

“They are noble, they follow rules, they don't kill without reason, they care for one another, and they uphold their traditions-” Kagome growled.

 

“Traditions? You mean the same old guidelines and codes that got half of our race destroyed by you humans. The same rules that keep us, the stronger, the greater species, from ruling this world as it is rightfully ours? As far as I see it, girl, you are nothing but another piece of cattle. Why is that Inuyasha fails to see you in that way? Because he is a defect, like the rest of his family and all nightwalkers that take pity on humans.”

 

Though his countenance was emotionless, the Kings eyes held a glare. “Your breathing sickens me. I want you out of my sight. Go.”

 

“You're not going to kill me?” Kagome frowned dubiously.

 

“I would not sully my hands with your blood.” The King waved his hand, a flash blinded Kagome for a second, and then she found herself safely on the ground, looking up to where Narek and the King towered over her at the top of the construction site.

 

“You may leave.” The King's voice echoed in her head. Without a second thought, Kagome began sprinting away.

 

He watched the dirty girl run. Turning to his subordinate, he said, “Kill her.”

 

Narek got to his feet. “You do not want to wait?”

 

“For?”

 

“The imminent death of Inuyasha and that girl.”

 

The King raised a brow. “Explain.”

 

“Like any kind of drug, he will have tolerance and then withdrawal. Right now, he is connected to her by second-generation blood ties. Her death means his death, instantly. This is a by-product of his tolerance of her blood. Right now, he will fair well for months without having to bite her. But this high point won't last long. Eventually, he will need more and more of her to sustain himself, until it reaches the point that he will need all of her blood. He will end up losing himself and kill her, bringing his own demise in the process.”

 

The King took this briefly into thought. “I care not. What does it matter if it is now, or later, or if you are the assassin. Destroy her.”

 

“As you wish.” Narek turned and jumped down into the road below.

 

As he vanished, the King felt that he was growing tired of the boy. Narek had shown nothing but loyalty. He carried out every order, he never questioned, and he never showed insolence, yet the King was wary of him. Narek had broken the most sacred of things: he had betrayed. The King would be a fool to believe that Narek wouldn't repeat his past actions. Nevertheless, Narek was rather able when it came to hunting and disposing of the family. He would use him for a little while longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere looked the same. She ran through the streets, ignoring the questioning looks people gave her as she passed. Eventually, she stooped at an intersection corner to catch her breath. She was so winded, she couldn't even analyze what she had just experienced. No, she told herself, don't think about it! Keep running!

 

Kagome passed by many blocks, narrowly escaping being hit by several cars. The more she ran, the darker the streets became, till Kagome had run herself directly into an alley and hidden behind a dumpster to gather air.

 

“Nice hiding spot.”

 

Kagome shot to a stand and sucked in her breath.

 

“Screaming won't help you.” Narek said. He stood next to a lamppost. Kagome shot a look toward the end of the alley, to a narrow space between buildings that led to a bigger block. She stood and began inching toward it, backing away from Narek slowly.

 

“How pathetic.”

 

“Pathetic? Me? I guess you're right. I mean, I am just a weak human right?” Kagome said while she searched around for a weapon or some kind of diversion. If she could keep him distracted then maybe…

 

“A weak human indeed.” Narek said as he took slow paces forward every time she took a few steps back.

 

“Can I ask you something? Don't you feel anything from hurting the family you used to belong to?” Kagome saw a stick next to the dumpster. If she could just get it.

 

“I have nothing but apathy for them.” Narek answered.

 

His eyes were right on her so maybe he didn't see it. Kagome took tiny steps to the side. “But don't you wonder if what you are doing is wrong? You say you hate humans, but you used to be human. Isn't that a contradiction?”

 

“It does not matter to me.”

 

Just a few more inches. Kagome thought. “I don't get it. You were a victim of genocide. Those guys tried to wipe your culture. Isn't a nightwalker who tries to kill all humans just as racist as they were? Isn't what your doing exactly the same?”

 

Kagome's fingers enclosed around the stick, but she couldn't lift it, for Narek was giving her the exact same spiteful, bone-chilling look of antipathy that he had once directed at Lilliana.

 

He bared his teeth. “You have no right to judge me. Do you know what humans, what your kind did to me? They killed my father and put his head on display! They murdered my wife and unborn son, lined me up with my brothers and shot them one by one! Do you know what those bastards did afterward? Do you know what they said to me right before they shot me? `He is such a beautiful boy. Too bad is a loathsome Armenian boy.' So I was only worthwhile if I wasn't part of the culture I loved? I wanted to curse this `beauty' of mine! You can't understand the humiliation! I would rather be the ugliest creature on this planet then to hear those monsters say such a thing as false remorse for killing me! I have a right to prejudice! I have a right to revenge!”

 

Narek, snarled, his fang biting into his lower lip and drawing blood. He slammed his hand against the dumpster. It exploded on impact, trash raining down. He turned his blackish, green eye toward Kagome and she winced, stumbling back as though he'd slapped her.

 

“What's the world care if there is one less human.”

 

Kagome hadn't had the chance to react for in the next second, Narek had ripped open her blouse, brought her chest up to his lips, slit through her sternum with his fangs, and cut the life giving artery over her heart. The last thing Kagome heard before her world went black was a scream in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scene before her was grotesque! She felt her eyes fill for the umpteenth time that night. She screeched. “What have you done!”

 

He looked up, fresh blood still on his lips and gawked at her. “Alive.” He huffed.

 

“Put her down, now!” Lilliana roared. Narek stared at her with his eyes as wide as an owls. “Impossible.”

 

Lilliana charged. Narek dropped the body and evaded a swipe of her claws. Seething, he made a motion to strike at her, but Lilliana instinctively opened her voice. Song pinned Narek where he was and the look of surprise and anger on his face gave Lilliana a burning feeling of satisfaction. She sang louder, and Narek covered his ears and hunched over. He let out a wail.

 

“Stop singing that!” He ordered.

 

She did. Narek, panting, stood upright and focused his attention at her once more. “I thought you'd like it.” Lilliana spoke. “It is, after all, a wonderful Armenian folk song. One that you would recognize, I'm sure.”

 

It was only a second, the tiniest of moments, but Lilliana saw recognition and fear before Narek had disappeared, retreated from the memories of his past.

 

“Kagome!” Lilliana cried, making her way back to her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm done? I'm done! Oh. My. God. This chapter took a turn from what I'd intended it to be. There's more racism in here then I thought. Please don't kill me! That's how I always imagined the nightwalker king and Narek to be! I hope you liked!