Even Angels Fall by MoonliteCrescndo

Prologue

Blood dripped. All she could see, feel, touch and taste was the vermilion liquid dripping...dripping. And then...

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Kagome stood alone in her father's house, still shocked by the red stains on her hands. Distractedly she watched the life blood drizzle out of her outstretched palms to pool on the polished wood floor.

In times of panic, she thought to herself, its funny one could still note the labor involved in cleaning up this mess.

But she wouldn't clean up this mess, like so many of her others. But she was the only one able to fix her last particular mess, and in cleaning up the previous one, she created another.

"The story of my life" she muttered to herself, involuntarily glancing at the lifeless body before her. Still shocked and slightly surprised that the gun still cocked in her hand hadn't drawn anyone's attention, Kagome allowed herself to finally break down and take the situation as reality.

She had killed the only man she had ever loved.

Even in death his face still held an affinity for her heart. His white, wispy hair was speckled in the sticky substance that once resided in his veins. She had killed him with her own two hands. And with the slight curl gracing his lips she started to remember the passionate kisses and nips he gave her in their stolen solitude. The swollen red lips she had only just kissed the night before. The offensive hands that seared her flesh with fire, the muscular chest that provided desire at the mere thought.

But to him, it was all a game. His touch, his kiss never meant to him what it meant to her. To her--it was love. To him--it was his job. He was paid to seduce her, to bed her, to kill her father. Kagome wasn't aware of the latter until an unsolicited warning from her lover's own dear brother.

He, she thought bitterly, lived amidst all this pain. HE survived unscathed.

She had to take matters into her own hands.

And she did. She arranged for her father to be away--unknown to his killer. She arranged to be home on that day--unknown to her guards. She arranged to kill him with his brother's stolen gun. She arranged for everything but the mess--and the heartache.

Kagome knew what to do now. It was the only thing to do. She bent down to her lifeless lover and hugged his bloodied body close and cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks like a refreshing rainstorm in El Salvador.

For once she had control. For once she had taken care of her own mess. And now all that was left was for her to lament.

With one last strangled cry of new and swift grief she fainted just as Sesshomaru showed himself in the doorway.

With a glance about the scene, he voiced barely above a whisper one word...

"Inuyasha..."