Before:

"That's right." Ginta said. "There'd be no reason for him to tell you no. He is devoted to you! He'll defiantly take you."

A snarled laugh at the den entrance made them all jump and quickly turn around. There was a large shadow blocking the doorway, blocking out the last straying rays of the sun.

"Or I could just take you away myself," Said the shadow, laughing harshly again. "But then, I'd take you away and eat you!"

As the shadow lunged at them, Kagome scream out the name of the only person she wished to see with all her soul, "INUYASHA!"

Now:

Inuyasha shot awake so quickly that he was up and standing from his sitting position so quickly that he become disoriented. Snarling, he tried to perceive from where the danger came from, but there was nothing and no one but his friends around, sound asleep. He stood motionless for a moment, using his senses to reach into the darkness around him and look for anything out of place. All that assaulted his ears were the quiet noises of a sleeping forest.

Unconvinced by the seemingly innocent nature of the world around him, Inuyasha silently stalked to the edge of camp and proceeded to walk the perimeter once. When that revealed nothing to his senses, he took the circuit again, with no results. On his third round, with his irritation and anxiety that something was wrong soaring, he silently walked to Miroku, intending to wake the pervy monk up.

However, before Inuyasha could even touch him, Miroku's eyes were wide awake and he said, "I know Inuyasha. I feel it as well. Something is wrong." He glanced at Sango, who he relieved to see had opened her eyes as well. "I don't know what it is either." He added.

"Nothing close by," Inuyasha growled, pushing all of his senses to their limits. "Nothing I can sense, no scared or running animals, and no tension in the forest." He sniffed in the air and wrinkled his nose. "Only us."

"What do you think it is?" Sango said, stretching out her arms as she watched Kilala get up and start pacing in front of her. "Kilala senses it to." She pointed out.

"If I knew, I'd be after it," Inuyasha ground out, clenching his teeth. He had felt this way only a few times before: when he Mother was in danger, when she died, and that one rare time when he had felt his brother was in terrible pain. He pointed this out to his group.

"So," said a small voice from Inuyasha's shoulder. "Each time it was with a family member? With your pack?"

"Myoga!" Inuyasha exclaimed, turning his head slightly to glance at the flea. "Why are you here? And what do you mean?"

"I mean, think about it," he started, jumping onto Inuyasha's offered hand. "Each time was with someone close to you. Your Lady Mother, you Brother. You knew they were in danger." He eyes Inuyasha's thumb and licked his lips before continuing, "Maybe someone close to you is in danger now?" he slid closer to Inuyasha's thumb. "Someone in your pack?" he stepped close. "Someone you care about?" he pounced…right into Inuyasha's finger, which flicked him away.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha slashed his arm through the air as he said, "I'm not some damn wolf to be making a pack." He glared at where the flea had landed but didn't add anything.

Hopping onto the head of Kilala so as to have a better vantage point, Myoga shook his head and said, "Wolves aren't the only ones that make packs, Inuyasha. Dog demons do to. How do you think your Lord Father lived? Alone?" Falling into a sitting position, he continued, "Even if you don't know it, you have a pack, Inuyasha." He glanced at Sango and Miroku, who were now staring curiously at Inuyasha, as if expecting him to know what all of this meant.

Inuyasha's only response, however, was a growl and a glare. He was growing more and more agitated by the minute as the sense of impending danger kept growing. He couldn't shake the feeling that something, somewhere, was very wrong, and that that something was very important.

An idea suddenly hit him and he spoke out loud before he could contain himself, "Kagome!" which caused all his comrades, except Myoga, to turns their heads and look around, as if expecting her to suddenly appear from nowhere.

"Exactly," Myoga said, closing his eyes and nodding his head. "She is in danger and, because of your pack connection to her – even though you've only felt it subconsciously until now – you picked up her distress."

"W-what?" Inuyasha stammered. "Kagome is in danger? How? Why? Where?" he suddenly glared at Myoga fiercely and had the sudden urge to squish the flea once and for all. He knew his is emotions were suddenly going wild, but he couldn't help himself as he said, "And how do you know?"

Myoga, sighing like an old man – or flea in this case – replied, "Because I can feel it. Remember, I was part of your father's pack before he died. I know more about packs then I think even he did." He stood up again before saying in a lower voice, "I'm part of your pack now. You might think I'm being sentimental, but even I can't ignore the call of a pack member." He jumped to the ground. "How do you think I always know how to find you?" And before anyone could say anything else, he had jumped away into the night.

"What…the…hell?" Inuyasha yelled after him, wanting a fight. A hand on his shoulder, however, restrained him and he whipped around, ready to hit Miroku for touching him, only to find it was Sango standing close to him.

"It doesn't matter, Inuyasha," she said slowly, as if afraid to provoke him further, which she was. "If he says Kagome is in danger, I think that we should believe him." She glanced at Miroku, who nodded. "We should be going to try and help her, not running after Myoga for explanations." Again she glanced at Miroku. "We can always get those later."

He stared at her a moment, and for an instant Sango feared he had gone demon on them again, even though he still had Tetsiga at his side. However, after only a few moments, his breathing slowed and he closed his eyes, trying to regain control.

"Alright," he finally said, snapping his eyes open and looking from Sango to Miroku. "She might not want to see me, but if she's in danger, I'm not going to leave her for that wimpy wont to protect!"

A deer trumpeted a warning cry a moment before death descended upon it. Another one, only a few feet away, took off, only to die as well. However, the call had gone up and suddenly the whole forest was awash in the cries and screams of terrified and running animals. A few were caught and killed, but many, who knew the forest back to front, got away before snapping jaws could close around anything venerable.

The smell of fear and blood rose through the air, making the predators that much more frenzied as they ripped into the carcasses at their feet. At a particularly large buck, which was being systematically stripped of all its usable parts to be used later, a nose rose into the air.

"Did you hear that?" Kouga asked, sniffing the blood and death scented air.

Everywhere, eating stopped as the other members of his pack lifted their noses into the air and sniffed as well, their ears perked for any sign of danger. However, after only a moment, they went back to eating, having sensed nothing close, or big enough, to harm them.

"Nothing," announced the wolf demon beside Kouga, who had blood all over himself. "What did you hear?"

"Nothing," Kouga replied after one last sniff of the air. "Must have been an echo."

'Oh God, oh God, oh God, their dead, their dead!' Kagome thought as she ducked another blow aimed at her and glanced at the still and bleeding forms of Ginta and Hakaku. 'Oh…God…'

"Stop moving human wench, and let my sink my fangs into you!" cried the voice of the demon as it lashed out at her again and caught the back of her leg, ripping into skin and muscle, causing her to bleed profusely. However, before it could swing its other arm at her, she had ducked back into the den and scrambled around a corner, looking for anything that might help her in this apparently one-sided fight.

"I can smell you!" the demon roared, lumbering into the den. "I can smell your sweet, sweet blood!"

Terrified, Kagome tried to move farther into the den, towards the back, but her leg was slowing her down and she was getting light headed. Too much happening, too soon, and too much bleeding for one girl to take.

She had never fought on her own before, not really, since she had always known someone was close by, or knew that she would be rescued. However, that was all before she had had this stupid idea to leave Inuyasha, her protector, and go off with Kouga, who had seemed a safe choice at the time. Now, however, she was questioning her own sanity and she stumbled through the den, hoping to stay awake and alive long enough to give the demon at least a few bruises.

She didn't realize she had tripped until she was laying on the floor. The wound on her leg must be really bad if she was getting this dizzy, but she didn't dare look. Looking back would mean seeing the demon, and she didn't want that. She just wanted to sleep…no, she just wanted to go home…but she knew she wouldn't get anywhere if she didn't move.

She pushed herself halfway up, but when she tried to stand, she found that her legs wouldn't move. Either of them. She was paralyzed!

"Finally feeling the effects of the poisonous claws, hmm?" the demon cackled as Kagome moaned in pain when she tried to move again, only to find that her arms were starting to go numb to. "It works more quickly the more you move. So keep going. It'll make your death all the sweeter."

"Go…to…hell…jerk…" Kagome gasped out, her whole body going numb. She could barley breath she was so numb. But at least the pain had stopped. Yes, that was the important thing…

Important…

What was important?

Her mind was going fuzzy from the poison, but she suddenly had the distinct image of a white haired, red clothed and clawed person, looking at her with such a hurt face that she longed to hold him in her arms and tell him everything would be ok.

But, who was he?

'Inuyasha…' she thought. 'Inuyasha, Inuyasha, Inuyasha, Inuyasha…' the name resounded in her head, which was slowly going black.

She knew the demon was close. She could hear it talking to her, or itself, and feel its hot breath on her face. It was disgusting.

'Inuyasha…' she thought again, seeing the white haired boy again.

With her last breath, she was able to breath out one word: "Inuyasha…" before the world went white, such an intense white, and she passed out.

A/N: Ha, cliffhanger. Makes you wait, ya? Fun. Mmm, hateable aren't I?