At What Price

SUMMARY: The sound of uneasy quiet ensued for longer then five seconds and Ayame almost hung up the line. The phone was half way put down to the table when she heard the male voice again. It was as if the man was trying to think of his next plan.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi everyone. I'm sorry about not updating like normal, but... You know how life goes. Enjoy the continuing drama. Until then. Plus thanks for the rave reviews.

CHAPTER 69: DECODING A MESSAGE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kagome groaned loudly at the pain shooting up her shoulder, but that wasn’t what held her attention. It was the bastard lying unconscious just a few feet behind her. Kagome’s head quickly snapped back to the where Naraku lied. Her breathing became shallow and rapid as her eyes scanned over the vile man for any indication that he was awake. Seconds ticked away like grains of sand falling from an hour glass, and with each falling granule it felt like perpetuity for Kagome within the dark office. Her heart was pounding wildly within her chest as she managed to crawl onto fours and scoot away quickly. The door was coming into reach as Kagome’s adrenal pumped through her body. She picked herself up cautiously and made a dash for the door. Her hand came in contact with the cold metal handle when she heard a deafening groan behind her. Kagome’s fight or flight syndrome kicked into gear as she turned the handle violently and pulled it open and as fast as she could. She escaped out the door by running out of the devil’s lair.

Naraku heard the office door colliding with the walls as it hits. He smiled masochistically as he brought a hand to the back of his head. “So, my dear, Kagome,” Naraku began to lift himself off of the floor. “You tried to run away from me?”

She limped down the corridor as fast as she can when laughter erupted from her former holding. Kagome fought the urge to scream as she staggered down the hall. Her eyes could barely register another double door at the end of the corridor.

*Click, click, click*

Kagome didn’t need to turn around to know what was making that sound. The humming from the florescent lights above was slowly fading in the distance behind her as she ran. The soft glow of the lights guiding Kagome’s way started shutting off one by one. It was as if they turned off by following her escape path down the long narrow corridor. The darkness was overcoming the narrow hallway like a black hole as it stole even closers to her. Kagome’s flight for freedom was so near she could taste it, but it wouldn’t come so easily.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If there had been any people witnessing this unusual wedding ceremony they would have collapsed on the floor dying of laughter. The sight of the bride and groom were portraying was hilarious. Gramps had the two doing meditation, but modified yogi positions while chanted an old mantra and ward in the ancient language which he was sure Inuyasha and Kikyou wouldn’t understand. He was praying of some holy intervention to waylay before this marriage ceremony could even begin. Gramps couldn’t stall much longer.

Inuyasha could feel his annoyance growing has Gramps made him assume a position that required Kikyou and him to stand on one foot balancing, while holding the other foot above their heads. Inuyasha could feel himself loosing his balance and tilting off to the side. They had been going at this for two hours straight and had yet to say ‘I do.’ He felt himself leaning a little to the right and quickly started to loose his balance so Inuyasha tried to correct this by throwing himself to the left. This resulted in him over correcting and falling over onto the bamboo floor.

*CRASH!*

However on his decent he happened to take his beautiful fiancée with him. The couple where on sprawled out the floor. Inuyasha was the first to get up off the floor and went to help Kikyou get up.

“Grrrrr! Old man! What is the point of this? We’ve spent two hours doing your so called meditations. When are you going to marry Kikyou and myself?” Inuyasha jumped away from Kikyou after she was on her own two feet. He started to stalk over to the old priest, who was still chanting.

Gramps cracked an eye opened and laughed while waving a hand at Inuyasha. “Oh, yes that.” He began to step backwards away from Inuyasha. “Actually, I forgot that you two wanted to get married.” Gramps then put a sly look and his face as he crooked a finger at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha leaned into Gramps. The face the old codger was making was quite suspicious, but Inuyasha wondered what the priest was up to. His ears twitched when Gramps’ warm breath hit his ear. His voice was a low whisper.

“Are you really sure you want to marry her? I thought you wanted me to perform a cleansing ritual.” He nudged Inuyasha in his ribs, ‘You know, like a exorcism or something.” as he point to Kikyou.

Kikyou’s hair had started to fall from it nicely done up do but after her great fall it now as in clumpy tatters. She was perspiring and could feel her makeup running. Kikyou was at her last straw. She silent wanted to beat that old geezer to a pulp and would take joy in doing it also. Kikyou knew that the old priest was screwing with them, but Inuyasha was just as dense as ever. Her so called fiancée was so hard headed he didn’t even get the obvious hostility coming from the old priest. The priest was toying with her with all those snide comments he was making. Kikyou turned a cheek to them but was plotting his demise all the while. But, that wasn’t going to last for long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Down in the decoding department hundreds of computers and electronic devices surround the computer science major, Ayame Wolf. She was a doctorate student at Tokyo University who had happened to have a chance encounter with the infamous Sesshoumaru Masurau.

He was standing outside a classroom which he was invited to do a guest lecture on. Mr. Masurau was trying to get into the large amphitheatre style classroom that had a state of the art digital alarm and lock, which required a code to permit entrance. Well, the University Administrator gave Mr. Masurau the wrong code for the classroom, however; the problem was that it was seven o’clock at night and all university offices were closed. Just how did Ayame factor into this? Well, she happened to be working as a computer analysis for the University at the time. Ayame was on her way to work the rounds for the night shift when she walked out of the office and saw the most beautiful man she had ever seen in all her life. But, on closer inspection Ayame realized that that was the Lord of the Western Lands and no mere man, but an Inuyoukai. Her green eyes watched as he shook the door with a violent force that would have ripped the door of its hinges unless she wouldn’t have intervened. Ayame broke the code for the classroom and ever since then she had been working for him.

Ayame Wolf fondled the small cell in her hand as she hooked up a line to the base of the adaptor connector. “This will be easy.” She said out loud. “Breaking phone codes is child’s play.”

Ayame flipped on the palm pilot then entered in the code. Next she dialed the voice mail center and let the palm pilot do its magic. Ayame listened intently as the animated voice answered the line.

“Welcome to your voice mail center. Please enter your personal password.”

She tossed her red curled locks over her shoulder when she heard the animated voice. Ayme then went back the palm pilot and looked at the screen. The message on there asked if user wanted to run the number breakers program. With her other hand she selected the enter button and watched to palm pilot go to work. On the screen, green eyes watched what was like a slot machine turning rapidly as number turned from 0-9. Then the first number stopped into place 5. The middle number slowed then stopped into place revealing the next sequenced number 2. Finally the last to number came to existence 1 and 8.

The cell phone was cradled close to her ear as she listened to the animated voice came back over the line.

“You have one new message. Sent yesterday at 10 o’clock.”

Ayame could feel the anticipation building within her. It was beginning to become like a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach as she listened intently for what seemed to be any eternity. Finally she heard it. A deep inhalation of breathe hit her ear like a hard wind. Then that blessed voice that she was waiting for broke the silence.

“KAgoME!” Ayame almost laughed as she heard the high pitched squeak of a man who was apparently very nervous followed next by a loud cough in a vain attempt to clear his throat.

“Caakk!! It’s me. I just wanted to… Feh! Damnit! Why is this so hard?! Look, I’m getting married in a few hours. Your Gramps is the only one that would agree to marry Kikyou and me. But before he would do it the old geezer wanted me to call you. So there, I called you!”

The sound of uneasy quiet ensued for longer then five seconds and Ayame almost hung up the line. The phone was half way put down to the table when she heard the male voice again. It was as if the man was trying to think of his next plan.

“Kags… I’m sorry. I do care for you. I never meant what I said.” His voice was filled with pain. “Kags, you are my best friend… I miss you.”

With that the line was disconnected and the extreme realization that the man’s voice was that of Inuyasha Masurau. Ayame was floored. It took all she had not to scream. ‘Why did it take you so long to figure out that it was him?’ she questioned herself. ‘Maybe what tipped you off was the fact that he said Kikyou and me. The only person that would marry that self loving person would have only been Inuyasha.’ Ayame ran out of the office in search of Mr. Masurau. Oh, he wasn’t going to be happy when he heard about this latest development. ‘Damn!’ she screamed to herself.

The lights on the digital bomb continued the ominous count down. 14:30, 14:29, 14:28....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~