reasons

After several frozen minutes, Miroku set the plastic sacks on the coffee table in front of her.  They were filled with blood bags, marked ‘clean’ and with signs of his girlfriend’s father’s blood bank on the front.

“Does Sango-chan steal blood for you often?” she asked dryly.  Miroku winced, but still offered a stilted smile.

“Only in cases like these, Kagome-sama.”

“Explain.”

He settled on the couch by her, and Kagome latched on to Kouga’s hands when he went to remove them.  They felt like summer, toasty warm against her frigid skin, and they damn well weren’t going anywhere while she had to listen to this.  Miroku tugged at his ponytail, his old nervous tell, before settling back against the couch and starting.

“What do you know?”

“That I woke up before being burned to death.  Quit stalling.” She actually pitied him a little, his face going from pale to pasty white when she snapped.  With a deep breath, he continued.

“About two weeks ago, you were on a train on the Chuo Line.  Someone parked a vehicle on the tracks, and the train couldn’t stop in time,” he started.  Kagome nodded, brows still knit together. He sighed and continued. “You were in one of the forward cars.  Pretty much everyone from the first three cars is dead. You were the only one who made it out of the second car, by some miracle.

“They took you to the nearby hospital.  At first, they couldn’t tell anything. Then it seemed like you were miraculously getting better.  No one had any suggestions why, but you were getting stronger.” He hesitated, swallowing. “Then… then out of the blue, you withered practically overnight.  Less than 24 hours after you started going downhill, you were dead. The doctors didn’t have any explanation for that, either.”

“That was the bite sinking in,” Kouga stated, and Miroku nodded in agreement.

“That’s what makes sense.  The bite kills you quickly, but not right away,” he replied, the facts flowing easily off his tongue.  Kagome couldn’t help but note how used to this he was. “Hakkaku tells me you don’t know your sire. That makes things harder, but not impossible.  We’ll get Inuyasha to talk to the local Coven and see if anyone comes forward. In the meanwhile,” he glanced toward the blood packs on the table, “you really… you really need to eat something.”

She glanced at the blood, swishing in its plastic containers.  Her tongue was twitching, her saliva pooling; some part of her thought it looked delectable, but the rest…  She shook her head. “I don’t think I can stomach that just yet.”

“You’d best stay here.  Sunrise was a few minutes ago, and you’ll burn easily,” he said softly.  Kagome looked down at Kouga then, and he gave her a smile that was only a little strained.

“Aw, hell.  One vampire in a lunacy of werewolves won’t be a big deal.”

She couldn’t help the quirk of lips that came with that.  “A lunacy is it.”

“It is.”

Miroku got her attention by leaning over, and offered a wan smile.  “Kagome-sama, I am very, very glad you are alright. Even if you are a vampire.  Sango has cried for days in her grief.”

“Judging by how red your eyes are, you haven’t been much different,” she offered.  

Neither mentioned Kagome’s family.  No doubt they were even more distraught, even more grieved than her best friend.  There was no way she could reveal this to them though; how could she just waltz up to her family shrine and say, “Hi everyone!  I’m not dead, I’m just a vampire now!  Sorry about that expensive funeral. I bet my eulogy was great, lol.”  

No way in hell.

“Will you be alright here?  Kouga-sama is a very important male in Tokyo.  You didn’t even react when he said you would be staying amongst his wolves,” Miroku asked, just a little worried.  Kagome gave a half-laugh, tossing her chin in Hakkaku’s direction.

“How many other mythological creatures could be walking around with tails?”

“Many indeed, though you make your point.”

Kagome stared at the hands she had in a stranglehold on her lap, her smile fading until worry marred her face.  Several moments of silence passed between them. Ayame fussed at a few nearby people before turning and leaving, red tail swishing as she went.  The two dozen men and women milling about thinned as they left in one direction or another. A few blobs that she’d first thought were throw rugs turned out to be actual wolves — which were supposed to be extinct in Japan, but here they were, fat and happy and yawning widely as they got comfortable on various patches of carpet or overstuffed furniture.

“Really, I think I’m in shock,” she said quietly.  Miroku nodded, his eyes resting on the same scene. Kouga was watching her quietly with those still overwhelmingly-blue eyes.  Kagome touched a tongue to one of her canines, ignoring the prick and lack of blood to follow. “I can tell I’m different. The cold doesn’t bother me, and my teeth are sharper, and my senses are better than before.  I can see the tails on these people, and their fangs, and I haven’t missed when their eyes went all cat-slit over one thing or another… but to tell me I’m a vampire?”

“If it helps any, you’re a very pretty vampire,” Kouga quipped.  Kagome startled, looked down at him, and just as she was about to ask what he meant, he said, “Were your eyes always this blue?”

She turned to Miroku with a sick look on her face.  He pulled at his ponytail.

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