Blue moon and Red Fire

Chapter 11: Starry Night

“Hmm...” Kouga smiled to himself, sitting in the windowsill of the living room's front and largest window, one leg drawn up while the other hung down carelessly. He rested his hands in his lap and his back against the wall, tilting his head towards the window. He'd already gotten dressed, waring his pants and his completely open button up shirt, He felt a chill coming from behind the glass, but that cold was worth the sight he was seeing it right now.

He gazed out into the snow filled darkness, illuminated by stray rays of moonlight that shone in the distance like hope. Those rays sparkled with the shards of ice shavings and snow hanging in the air that came into the light's gaze. But with these new lights the winds unsettled and began growing harsher, sweeping huge amounts of snow into the air like a wall that made it imposable to see past. “Wow...” It was enough to make him wonder if things like this happened often at 3:30 in the morning.

A haunting sound echoed down from the roof almost ominously, a howl, Kouga's howl. But there was something different about it since the last time he'd heard it, this time it was a devoid, saddened sound that made Houjo's heart sink as soon as he heard it. 'Kouga...' Why did he sound so... depressed? What was wrong with him? Houjo sighed and sank even farther, a visible slump coming into his form. Maybe it was empathy, or simple worry, if his mate was sad then...But If Kouga had been sad then why did he notice it before?

“Kouga...” Houjo folded his arms and looked down thoughtfully when he heard the howl from above again... His eyes inanely drifted towards the window, and the beam of moon light that covered the house, giving off enough illumination to outline his body in a deep blue, apart from the darkness that shrouded the house.

'Hey wait...' An idea came to his mind.

“I know what will cheer him up.” Houjo smiled to himself as he pushed himself off of the windowsill.

! - ! - !

“That is so cool...” Souta's eyes sparkled with amazement as he sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the light outside...

But sitting alone in that dark room with nothing to accompany him but the outcry of the fierce winds growing in speed outside. He couldn't help but realize the odd feeling he was getting at the moment, it was like the high pitched static that rung in someone's ears when a TV was turned on. 'I felt this before...what is it...?'

But he didn't even pay attention to it, any focus he had of the feeling left him when he heard Kouga howling outside. “Kouga must be with Inuyasha.” Souta rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hands, looking through the window with a wonder visible on his face.

He could feel him.

He could feel Kouga. Maybe it was because Kouga had marked him and nearly mated with him, but Souta could feel Kouga's energy, he could feel whatever aura Kouga was emitting at the moment. He could also feel Inuyasha, even more strongly as he could feel Kouga. It wasn't a knowledge of the feeling, physically he couldn't feel it at all, but there was something in his heart that wasn't there before.

He was starting to feel better already.

! - ! - !

“I'm sure he'll like this.” Houjo said to himself, slipping a Camera back into his coat pocket. Then hung his coat up back in it's place by the door, and shoved his hands into his pocket carelessly, walked back over towards the window. It still felt cold in the house, enough to make him want to put on another layer of clothing, he didn't understand how Kouga could be so hot all the time.

“I just hope it makes him feel better.” Houjo sat down in his former position, feeling the chill coming from outside that made him shudder. Kouga liked the cold, it was the first thing that came to his mind when he thought about the Youkai, Kouga liked the cold, at lest much more then he liked being hot. Maybe it was because he was a wolf demon, at least that's what he'd been told and he didn't question it, and wolf's generally were winter creatures.

Houjo glanced outward thoughtfully, thinking of Kouga. “He likes the snow.” Houjo reasoned, “Maybe something like that will make him feel better.”

Suddenly the winds flared up even stronger and another howl sounded from above, it was enough to make Houjo uneasy... 'What's going on out there?' Houjo leaned forward towards the window so close that his face was nearly pressed against the glass. 'Whoa...' He saw the most unusual sight he'd ever seen in his life.

The black clouds parted, blown outward from a single point like a shock wave or a ripple in water. The snow ceased completely with no left clouds to fall from and the stars appeared, the sliver light of the moon shined over everything giving his surrounding a dim sight. “Whoa...this is amazing.” One of the most amazing sights he'd ever seen, how the light poured into the darkness like a flood and opened into a sea of stars, that was definitely not natural .

Just then the front door opened and Kouga walked in, he paused in the doorway and stared down at the knob. “What is with these things?” He looked down at it with wonder as he twisted it over and over, staring at the locking mechanism. “They keep the door locked in place until you turn them, I wonder how it works?” 'I'll ask Houjo, Houjo knows these things...'

“Kouga?” With a record speed Houjo was standing over him, staring down at him with the same amazement he had when he first saw Kouga. “Did you see that? It was amazing.” He always had a child like wonder, but he seemed more mature in his curiosity.

“Heh, you liked that?” Kouga seemed to give up on his fascination with the door's handle and finally shut it behind him. “I didn't know you were awake.”

“You did that!?”

Kouga rested his hands on his hips and tilted his head upward confidently, a wolfish smirk came on to his face, seeming even more beastly with the enlarged fangs.

“Is that why you look like this?” Houjo was obviously talking about his transformed sate, which he had to say he liked better then the other higher demonic state. Those glowing ocean blue eyes were almost hypnotic.

“Yeah, maybe...” Kouga's confident look faded into a forlorn one, one completely unlike him. He looked back at Houjo, staring directly into his eyes. “It's pretty late, why are you still awake?”

“Yeah well.” Houjo's smile turned into a nervous one and his eyes downcast for a moment. “I just feels like...”

! - ! - !

“Inuyasha!” Souta stood up abruptly when the window opened, and with a cold breeze from outside Inuyasha appeared. With every bit of excitement that came with his age rushing through him, Souta got up and ran over to the window, leaning out of it before Inuyasha could even start to climb through.

“Souta? What are you doing up?” Inuyasha looked down questioningly at the boy, about to go inside before Kouga's insult rang through his mind. 'I can take the cold.' He snorted stubbornly to himself, 'It's not that bad out here.'

“Did you see that?” Souta leaned out of the window. “That was so strange, I never saw anything like it.”

Inuyasha folded his arms and leaned against the side of the second floor beside the window, Looking down on Souta. “Yeah I saw it, it wasn't that good.” He said, still thinking of Kouga.

Souta struggled slightly as he climbed out of the window and sat down in the opening.

“Hey? What are you doing?”

Souta smiled reassuringly “Don't worry about me, I'm ok.”

“Your gonna fall.” Inuyasha said simply.

“No I'm not.” Souta said as he tilted his head back and stared into the sky. He never really noticed the stars, he never really took time to look at them, really look. They were bright, but visibly dulled by the city's lights. “What was that?”

Inuyasha scowled and shook his head. “Nothing.” He said, notably bitter.

“Did it have something to do with Kouga?” Souta asked, since Kouga had obviously been there with him.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and shifted them away in annoyment. “Not really.”

“Oh, alright then.” Souta shrugged and leaned forward, resting his head in his hands. His feet kicked restless circles in the cold air and a settled expression came across his face, he seemed content. “You look really cool that way.”

'What?' Inuyasha looked down at himself, he didn't even realize that he was still transformed. And for some reason he was in a clear state of mind, he never had a mind this clear when he was like this...strange. “Hn...”

“Hey Inuyasha, do you feel any different?” Souta asked, his eyes still upward toward the sky.

“Huh?” Inuyasha came out of his brooding over Kouga's insults for the moment, What was Souta talking about? “What do you mean different?”

“Well, I don't feel sick.” Souta told him, looking down at his stomach where the feeling was centered, something similar to like nervousness. “But I just don't feel right. Do you feel anything like that?”

First Kouga mentioned it now Souta, this couldn't be nothing. “Yeah actually...” Inuyasha said, he looked up with his mind starting to wonder. “I do feel like something isn't right, and if your feeling like that...”

Souta jumped down on to the outlaying roof, landing in the snow with bare feet, if Inuyasha could do it then so could he...it was colder then he expected, not surprising since the snow was above his knees, but he ignored it. “So what dose that mean?” He tried and failed to repress the shutter in his voice.

“I don't know.” Inuyasha had no clue, so far it just meant that every one was feeling off. “Hmm...”

'Whoa!' “!” Souta reached out and grabbed on to Inuyasha's leg, letting out a yelp of surprise as he lost his footing and began slipping down the sloped surface.

Inuyasha grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up, looking down chastisingly at him. “I told you that you would fall!”

Souta laughed nervously and pulled himself up. “I'm gonna go in and get dressed now.”

With an amused laugh Inuyasha helped him inside, opting to wait where he was, still trying to prove Kouga wrong though the wolf was no longer watching.

...

5 minutes had passed, and there was nothing but a calm night to gaze upon. So why was that uneasy feeling getting worse? “Huh?” Inuyasha leaned forward and peered out into the dark, as if he'd seen something. “Nah...I must be imaging things, it's nothing.” he told himself, maybe it was nothing, or was he just unable to tell. “Could it-?”

“Inuyasha!!”

Souta stumbled to the window, nearly tripping over himself in his haste. He was fully dressed now, wearing a blue shirt and a pair of black pants. He was getting that feeling again, he wasn't sure what that feeling was, he wasn't sure if it was right about it but all he knew was it was getting stronger. “Somethings coming!” He nearly shouted.

'Damnit...” Inuyasha growled to himself, if Souta was sensing it then he couldn't simply be imagining it. He tilted his head back and inhaled the cold air with deep breathes, his heighten sense of smell given to him in this state was just barely able to pick up the distant traces of a light scent. The snow and opposing wind hindered it, almost made it undetectable, but it was there, and all of this could only mean that it really was coming closer to them.

“Is it...” Souta peeked his head out of the window and looked at Inuyasha with the look of a question he didn't want to ask. “Is it... that thing again?”

Inuyasha was sure of it, demons were non-exsistant in this era, when one showed it it was memorable. “Yeah.”

Souta stepped back out of the way as Inuyasha climbed through the window. “I'm afraid so kid.”

! - ! - !

Inuyasha came down the stairs with quick steps, Souta trailing uneasily behind him. “Oh, I see you noticed it too.” Kouga was waiting for them and Houjo was wide awake with a slightly confused expression as to why they were. “I just about to come get you two.”

“What? What is?” Houjo asked, looking around at the gathering. “What's going on?” An air of uneasiness descended on the room, pressing the most on an oblivious Houjo.

Kouga peered out of the windows, moving close enough to the glass to feel the cold air radiating from on the other side. Maybe he'd be able to see it and preempted it. “That is definitely it.”

Inuyasha moved over to the another window and began peering out uneasily.

Houjo scratched his head, yawning with the last, fleeting feelings of of sleepiness. There was no way he'd get back to sleep now. “What's with you guys?”

“Hey wait...” Souta sensed something, that familiar and unseen effect that made his ears ring with a high pitched sound and his skin feel what was reminiscent to static electricity. He followed it almost blindly, forgetting his foreboding sense of nervousness for curiosity as he walked closer and closer to the source. He found himself standing directly in front of Houjo. “Houjo...you...” He gave up on attempting to explain, he simply grabbed Houjo's shirt with an uncharacteristic boldness and pulled it open. If there was any doubt of what that feeling was and what it was reacting to, they were gone now.

“Huh?”

Souta saw exactly what he was looking for, a Shikon jewel shard hanging from a chain around Houjo's neck “It's a jewel shard.”

Inuyasha's ears perked at those words, with speed that could rival Kouga's Inuyasha appeared directly inbetween Houjo and Souta. He held on tightly to the boy's shoulders and looked down at the chain pressed against his chest scrutinizingly. “It is a Jewel shard. Where'd you get it?” Inuyasha asked firmly.

Houjo subconsciously held on to the jewel shard, clinching the chain close to his chest with a unnerved expression on his face. “Uh... I found it.”

“Give it to me.”

That was abrupt.“What?”

Kouga glanced back over his shoulder, then quickly looked back at the window with disinterest. “Lay off mutt, I let him keep it.” He sounded almost bored when he said that, he wasn't even worried about it.

“What, are you serious!? Idiot.” Inuyasha gave him a hard look that he should have known better. Then he looked at Houjo with a less harsh expression. “Look, you can't keep that.”

“No way, you can't take this.” Houjo shook his head, holding the chain tighter. “It's mine.”

“You have no idea what that thing really is.” Inuyasha shot back. “It's dangerous.”

Kouga didn't even bother to look back this time, he seemed to know what Inuyasha would do. “I wouldn't do that if I were you...”

“What the hell are you talking about. do-” Inuyasha reached out his hand for the Jewel shard, placing his hand over Houjo's who still held the chain. “!!” On contact an energy burst forth for the second time. It came in the form of disbursing electricity that slipped through Houjo's fingers with out harming him, streaks of strangely purple colored lighting shot outward and forced Inuyasha to pull his hand away.

'Whoa...Again?' A half startled Houjo could only blink questioningly, looking down at the shard in his hand. This was the second time it happened, maybe this thing really was dangerous.

Kouga sighed, scratching his ear lightly, still holding the same disinterested expression on his face about the whole situation. He figured Inuyasha wouldn't get very far. “I told you.”

“Whoa.” Souta looked up at Houjo with fascination. “That was so cool.”

“Yeah, take his side.” Inuyasha held his slightly singed hand, rubbing it slightly. “He tried to electrocute-”

Click

Everything went dark, nearly pitch black when the lights suddenly went out. Even the smaller lights from lesser deceives scattered about faded away, the distance noises of other things such as the refrigerator ceased completely. Everyone stalled for a few seconds, completely silent, wondering what was happening.

Inuyasha looked around, slightly more unnerved at his sudden lack of visibility. “What was that?”

“So Houjo, still got that feeling like southing's off?” Kouga asked. He looked back, only able to see faint traces of Houjo, Souta and Inuyasha through the moonlight that made it through the window.

“Oh man. The power must be out.” Houjo still seemed calm, he couldn't help but be, no one told him of any threat. “I'll go cheek the circuit breaker... Souta, is there a flash light around here?”

“Yeah, In the kitchen.” Souta reached out until he felt the bare skin of a torso, Houjo was the only person with an open shirt. “I'll show you.”

Kouga felt something slick wrap around his ankle, something that crept up and constricted like a snake that tried to pull him back off his balance. “It's here!” He grunted and kicked his foot out of it's grasp, taring it apart.

Another crept out of nowhere, wrapping around Souta's torso, and a second around his left ankle. “It's got me!” He pulled forward, attempting to pry free, but he wasn't strong enough. So he grabbed on to the only thing he cold, Houjo's arm.

“Souta?!” Houjo couldn't see anything, only becoming aware of it when the sharp tug on his arm almost knocked him off balance .He was unsure of what was pulling Souta, all he knew was that Kouga and Inuyasha were a considerable distance away, so it wasn't one of them. Houjo grabbed Souta by the arms and pulled him sharply, manging to pull him free from the creatures. “What was that?”

The tentacles lunged out for him, but Inuyasha was there before they could reach, ripping them apart with one swipe of his claws. “Aren't you two trying to do something? Hurry up and get to it!”

“Come on!” Souta grabbed Houjo by the hand and pulled him toward the kitchen, he felt the jewel shards the creature's held, that strange sense coming at him from all sides. They were surrounded... Souta nearly tripped when a tentacle wrapped itself around his legs, but he managed to kick free and stumble into the kitchen. Inuyasha was right behind him, grabbing it with one sharp pull and severing it. He was immediately met by more.

“Where is it?” Houjo was starting to understand why everyone was so uneasy. Another one dropped down from above and wrapped around his neck, constricting suffocatingly and pulling him back sharply in an attempt to hang him. “!!” His hands clinched the unseen rope constricting him, attempting to pull away as his breath was abruptly cut off.. Luckily Inuyasha was there and managed to slipped away from his own fight to help Houjo, easily slashing right through it with his claws and releasing the boy. “Inuyasha?”

“It's this way!” Souta pulled him by his arm past the refrigerator and Houjo complied, leading the older boy to a drawer near the sink. He opened it up and shuffled around blindly, every bit of his haste showing as he tossed things out of the compartment to find what he was looking for. “Here!” He found it and abruptly tossed it through the darkness to Houjo who accepted it gratefully.

“Where is the circuit breaker?” Houjo turned on the flashlight that luckily held full batteries. He swept over the room with the light, paying special attention to the ceiling where he'd just been attacked from by something he still had yet to see. There was nothing in sight, but he knew something was there. No wonder Souta was so afraid.

“In the basement.” Souta instructed hastily, the last thing he wanted to do was stand in one place. “I'll show you.”

Houjo turned around with a quick examination, and that's when he finally saw them, two them were slithering from the sink's faucet and the drain. What was that?! He'd never seen anything like this in his life, and why were they here!? “Souta.”

The boy flinched and took a step forward, getting behind Houjo. He couldn't seem to get away from them though, they crept along the ground like serpents, coming from seemingly all sides with out source. “Where are these things coming from?”

“Stop standing there!” Inuyasha fought frantically, blindly fighting off an enemy that he couldn't see. The scent was too close, it was all around him, the sound was too close, it was surrounding him also. He heard them creeping along the ground, along the walls, around the furniture, even down from the ceiling. He was forced to wait until he connected with something or something grabbed him before he could attack. “Go!”

He didn't know what was really happening, Houjo couldn't deny that he was afraid. The power just abruptly cutting out and these strange creatures coming out off the darkness in the middle of the night. It was creepy! Like almost every horror move he'd ever seen in his life. But he didn't have time to think about fear. “Alright then.” Houjo took the lead, moving with quick steps out of the kitchen, if he didn't run then those things couldn't trip him which seemed to be their biggest tactic. Souta apparently didn't seem to realize that, Houjo had to hold him back. “Where is it?”

“The basement.” Souta said, he held close to Houjo, wondering why he was moving so slowly.

Houjo steeped over one of the creatures that shot out of the darkness for his leg, shuttering slightly as he felt one attempting to wrap around his wrist. He abruptly pulled away, quickening his pace as the got to the living room. “Kouga?” He shined the lightly in the direction of the wolf, hoping he was alright.

“I'm still here.” Kouga seemed to be having the worst time among them, waves of them came at him from all sides, and it seemed as soon as he killed off one, two more took it's place. 'Not for long at this rate...' Anything he attempted to say at that moment was lost in an aggravated growl as they finally grew in numbers too large for him to fight off. He struggled as they wrapped around his legs, seizing his arms, surrounding his torso, attempting to either squeeze him to death or rip him apart, maybe both at the same time. Kouga bit down on one that attempted to wrap around his neck and shifted around resistingly, “Not that easily...” Kouga began moving, running around in a circles with his speed until his body was nothing more then a blur. A whirlwind formed around him, a torrent of rapid air currents swirled around him, winding in and ripping apart his captures while drawing in more of the surrounding tentacles into the vacuum. “It would really help if I could see! What happened to the light?”

“I'm on it!” Houjo followed the light of the flash light, looking around carefully at the pink tendrils draped down the walls like dripping water. He slipped past the stairs and into a small hallway between it and the living room. There was a cold stream of air coming from this corridor, from an open window at the end.

'??' Souta shuttered as he watched the creatures pry the window open and pour in large amounts like a flood ...they didn't have much time. “Oh man...”

“Forget about those.” Houjo grabbed Souta's hand and pulled the basement door open, forcing him to move. The flashlight swept over the descending stairwell with a quick survey before heading down, allowing them to see the dark passaged all the way to the bottom.

“There coming right for us!” Souta shouted, looking between what was ahead and back the basement doorway where the creatures were pouring into the house nervously.

“Don't worry about it, We'll deal with those after we get the lights back on.” Houjo attempted to sound reassuring, leading Souta quickly down the stairs. They made it to the bottom with out incident, a place that truly was pitch black in contrasted compared to small amount of light upstairs from the moonlight. 'Now where...' Houjo swept the flashlight over the brick walls and the boxes lining them, it was a large open area leaving plenty of space. 'There!' He saw the small box mounted on the back wall, cords and wires streamed out of it, covered by a piping like metal shell to protect them.

“Houjo! Look out!”

The fleshy pink tentacles burst through the narrow walls with loud crashes, clouding the air with rush of dust that made it hard to breath. With out hesitation they wrapped themselves around Souta, trapping him in an entanglement of the slick creatures. Before he knew it his whole body was covered and being constricted painfully, forcing the air out of his lungs. “Ahhaaa!”

“Souta!” Houjo turned back and bolted quickly up the stairs where Souta was trapped halfway. With out hesitation he began pulling at the creatures, only manging to get his hand on one or two at a time while attempting to hold the flashlight steady and see what he was doing. It obviously wasn't working. 'No...No! Souta!' With a growl of frustration he put the flashlight into his mouth, giving up on seeing what he was doing, and began prying and pulling at the creatures blindly with both hands.

The all of the tentacles gave one giant squeeze, forcing the breath out of Souta's lungs with a sharp gasp. One heartbeat like pulse gave one tight squeezed to Souta, almost like a signal before more of the tentacles burst through the walls and the floors, suddenly entangling and constricting Houjo before he realized it. '!!' He grunted loudly as he was suddenly pinned down to the uneven ground . 'No!' He could only watch helplessly as Souta was dragged up the stairs, being reeled into a larger mass of tentacles grouped in the hallway out side of the doorway.

He never realized there were so many of them, he spit the flashlight out of his mouth. “Souta!”

His heart raced, beating erratically in his ears loud enough to overpower the sounds of fighting in the distance. The jewel shard hanging from his neck began to resonate, pulsing with a purple light in time with his heartbeat. Then as if waiting for the right trigger it released it's energy for the third time, disbursing streaks of purple lightning that flooded the narrow path with a flashing, static light. The oddly colored electricity burned through the tentacles, letting them fall lifelessly off of his body, the strange liquid they oozed sizzled and the pink flesh became a dull brown. “?!” He looked down at the jewel shard, wondering what caused that reaction and how it came from such a tiny object.

“Kouga! Inuyasha!” Houjo flinched when he saw Kouga and Inuyasha's bodies entangled in the mass of tentacle in the small corridor that took the form almost of a hand, being throw loudly into the opposing wall. There were so many of them! There was such a large mass of them that they blocked the doorway. Something was knocked lose, an object was sent tumbling down the stairs with a loud clatter, slipping past the trapped Souta and landing painfully on his head. It fell into his hands, he couldn't help but take notice of it. 'What is this?' Houjo picked up the flashlight off of the ground and shined it on the object, 'He wait... this is-' Kouga's sword.

He could use this!

With out another thought he dropped the flashlight, drew off the sheath off the sword and lifted it with evident uncertainty in what he was doing. “Souta!” He bolted up the small gap of stairs, lifted the sword above his head and thrust it down on to mass of creatures binding Souta.

He weld it like a true armature. Houjo began hacking away at them, lifting the sword and slashing it downward repeatedly, his strokes holding no skill or rhythm to it, just simple desperation.

He lifted the sword for his fifth stroke and sliced through the last of the tendrils, allowing Souta to stumble weakly on his feet with deep, starved breathes now that his lungs weren't being compressed. “Houjo..” He clinched his chest and tried his best to steady his heart.

“Are you alright?” Houjo asked.

“Yeah.”

Houjo really wanted to stay with Souta, but his mate was in trouble, and it seemed that protective instinct went both ways. The fact that their were so many of the creatures on the level above that they blocked the door way didn't matter to him, at lest he could do something with this sword. “I'll be right back! Will you-”

“Forget about me, help them.” Souta wasn't too concerned, he ran right past Houjo and picked up the discarded flashlight a few stairs down. He could do one thing, he could at lest be useful for something instead of needing to be protected. He wanted to help, he wanted to help for once! He swallowed hard and forced a determined look on to his face, pausing to pick up the flashlight and jumping to the bottom of the stairwells.

Every noise made him flinch, every odd sound forced his stomach to tremble involuntarily, he expected something to reach out and grab him and he anticipated it nervously. But he just forced himself to keep going, with the knowledge that if Houjo was going to help Kouga, who was also with Inuyasha in the same position. Then no one would probably make it back in time to help him.

'I gotta do this, I gotta do this!' Souta made it to the back of the room with out incident, flinching when he heard the creatures creeping along the ceiling, making the wooden support beams creek. It just made him move faster, he reached the box in record time, without stumbling once.

There was only one problem...he couldn't reach it.

“No! No!” Souta desperately jumped, trying to reach the box with each out reach. 'I'm too short! No...' Souta gave up on that approach, sweeping the flashlight over the basement for something that could help. He ignored the sight of the tentacles slithering across the ceiling, coming for him. If he could just get the lights on... There! He saw a box against the wall not to far away from him, he could use that!

! - ! - !

'What are these things?' Houjo charged nervously up the stairs, sword held tightly in his hands. 'What's going on around here?' A normal person would have been adversed to try this, even with all of fear and doubts Houjo charged head strong toward the entangled mass of tendrils that could reach out and attempt to strangle him again at any moment. And the fact that he couldn't see anything didn't help. 'I'll figure it out latter. I have to help him...'

He didn't make it through, just before he was about to reach the door way a bright light burned through the darkness, bright enough to blind Houjo from the sudden contrast. Then a golden energy came rushing from the direction of Inuyasha and Kouga, swallowing the dense mass of the creatures like a wildfire sweeping across a dry forest. It was powerful enough to shake the entire house, the force of it blew Houjo off of his feet and threw backwards. “Whoooaaaa!”

“!!” He was sent tumbling backwards down the stairs, coming to a painful stop when his body slammed against the wall at the very bottom. Hard enough to effectively scatter any comprehendable thought he had at the moment '...Ow...' He still managed to keep a tight hold the sword.

....

“Geez Mutt.” Kouga gently twisted a finger in his left ear in a futile attempt to end the loud ringing, regaining that same disregarding, almost sleepy look he had on his face before. It was a stark contrast to the passionate and soulful one he'd had during the fight, it was so uncharacteristic, even Inuyasha noticed it. “We're inside, you couldn't take it easy?”

Inuyasha sheathed the Tetsusaiga at his side, watching the very few remaining tentacles recede like an outgoing tide. If enough of them were destroyed, then rest of them pulled back. “I was taking it easy.” Inuyasha mumbled. “The walls are still standing ain't they?”

Kouga folded his arms and looked away silently, staring at the walls that Inuyasha had so brashly pointed out weren't destroyed during the use of his wind scar. Kouga didn't bother to point out that Inuyasha would have never pulled off the technique had it not been for his cover, through he wanted to throw that small detail in the Hanyou's face. “You realize don't you...” He said, still looking away. “That they come back even stronger right?”

Inuyasha glanced at Kouga and then looked away, an almost annoyed expression coming on to his face as he turned his head away. Neither of them could seem to look at each other when holding a strait conversation.“Yeah.” He paused, scratching his ear with his eyes rolled away. “They came in the middle of the night this time.”

“If I didn't know better then I'd think they were trying to use the blizzard as cover.” Kouga said calmly. “That's pretty dangerous...” 'Huh?' He looked down at himself and finally noticed something was missing. “Hey, what happened to my sword....What happened to Houjo?!”

Houjo? Houjo was with Souta...Inuyasha's eyes widened. ”Souta!”

With out another word the two of them bolted toward the basement door, of course with Kouga's speed he made it before Inuyasha and had time to reach the bottom of the stairs before the other youkai even made it out of the hallway.

“Houjo...?”

Houjo opened his eyes and let out a soft groan of pain as he rubbed the back of his head where it hit the wall. His body was sprawled out limply across the ground, a sharp pain coming from three places on his back. “Kouga.” He smiled with that usual bright smile he always had. “Your alright.”

Kouga looked down at his sword, it was smeared with the strange clear liquid those tentacles had been oozing. “Did it help?”

“Huh?”

“The sword.” Kouga held out his hand and Houjo handed over the sword, picking up the sheath nearby before fixing it on his waist again.

“Yeah.” Houjo gratefully took Kouga's hand when the wolf reached out to help him up. “I glad your alright, I thought something happed to you.”

“Heh.” Kouga smirked. “You don't have to worry about me, I was worried about you.”

...

Inuyasha followed the light of the flashlight shinning on the farthest wall, walking curiously toward Souta who didn't seem to notice him. “Souta?” He stood behind the boy who was on top of a box, his hand inside of the open circuit breaker pushing a switch at the top back and forth with repetition.

“It's not working.” Souta sounded unusually monotone, staring blankly at the small box he'd done so much to get too. It was almost as if he couldn't believe it, like his mind wouldn't register it, like he expected the lights to simply come on despite the fact that he was painfully aware they wouldn't.

“What's not working.”

“The power is out, the circuit breaker isn't working.”

“So...you can stop doing that?”

Souta looked back at Inuyasha and quickly preyed his hand away from the device, he shifted his hands at his side nervously as if he didn't know what to do with them now that one of them wasn't flipping the main fuse back and forth. “Yeah...” He held his head down as he climbed off of the box. 'I couldn't even do this...I couldn't even do this simple thing...I really am weak.”

Inuyasha looked over the boy curiously. “Are you alright?”

“Uh-huh.” Souta looked up at Inuyasha fully, finally able to notice something he hadn't before. “Hey, your back to normal.”

'?' Inuyasha looked down at his hands, noticing that his claws had returned to normal size. He couldn't see it but the marks on his face and his eyes were probably back to normal ... Now he understood it, now he understood why himself and Kouga had transformed seemingly without reason. There was danger that most definitely threatened their mates so... 'Oh...' It seemed Kouga understood that before he did. 'Damn wolf, could have told me that.'