Chapter 8

Yoshiki stepped silently through the hedgerows following the frilled umbrella at a distance. He'd originally been following the movement of the familiars but Mana's abrupt appearance had shifted his target; not to mention the abrupt and obvious relocation of the familiars to the wrong side of the cemetery. The umbrella appeared to be making its way towards the largest crypt in this cemetery. It's majestic doors were built right into a grassy hill side and when Mana's umbrella folded and disappeared from sight Yoshiki hurried forwards, hoping he wouldn't lose him.

The crypt doors came into view and as expected Mana stood before them. The umbrella and an empty pet carrier lay on the ground beside him as he struggled to pull the doors open. Still remaining silent Yoshiki stepped towards the vampire. "Mana." He announced at last.

"Yoshiki." The voice came from behind and Yoshiki spun to look down the shaft of a loaded crossbow. "It takes a lot to get the Maker's attention, doesn't it?" and Mana smilingly pulled the trigger.

Yoshiki's superior age lent him the needed speed and he was able to side step the shuttle. One shout and one animal scream alerted both vampires to the arrows eventual targets. Toshiya had put himself between the arrow and Mana's look-alike and Taro's raven had, in turn, placed itself between Toshiya and the arrow. The raven had been unable to completely deflect the arrow so it had run the bird straight through and stuck into Toshiya's shoulder. Yoshiki moved quickly to stop Toshiya from falling while Kaoru appeared, drawn by the raven's coming death.

"Baka!" Mana yelled. "What's more important? You or the human?"

Izam whimpered as he looked over his shoulder at Toshiya who clung to him so not to fall down. "Safe." Toshiya whispered to the human with a pained smile.

"He doesn't want you to hurt anyone else." Announced a new voice. Everyone looked up above the crypt doors as a thin, orange haired man walked into view, purple eyes sad, hands in his pockets. Kaoru and Mana's jaws dropped open and Yoshiki looked away, seemingly ashamed.

The crossbow fell from Mana's hands in shock. "Gackt?"

"You wanted to talk to Him so badly?" Gackt's eyes remained sad. "Now's your chance."

The Maker walked into view and put a hand on Gackt's shoulder in thanks. He looked down at the group through black sunglasses, His face expressionless. His neon pink hair fluffed upwards, somehow matching with His neon yellow outfit. "Yoshiki, take the arrow out before it contaminates his blood stream. Gackt, take care of the human." Gackt nodded and jumped down off the crypt entrance to untie Izam. Yoshiki held Toshiya still with one hand and pulled the arrow loose as quickly as possible, Toshiya letting out a quick whimper before falling back onto his Father. The arrow and the raven were passed to Kaoru who cradled the familiar carefully, fighting back tears at the coming loss.

"What is it that you want so badly that you would hurt your own Children?" The Maker asked, His tone calm.

Mana looked like someone had nailed him with a frying pan. Finding out his sire had been alive this whole time was enough without discovering the Maker looked like he'd been exposed to nuclear radiation. The Maker's question reminded him of his goal however and he spoke. "Give Kozi back to me."

The Maker had a seat above the doors once Izam was out of the way and in Gackt's care. "I didn't take him."

"But you have him." Mana snarled.

"I suppose so." He pushed the sunglasses up on His nose. "I doubt you'd get much done with him right now. If I did bring him back he'd need a demon holding him up the whole time. He doesn't have his wings yet."

"I don't care what you have to do, just give him back to me!"

"He has to earn the right to return Mana. But I've got a better idea." He reached into the pocket of his yellow coat and took out two glass bottles about three centimeters in length. One bottle had rounded corners and contained what looked like a yellow mist with golden sparkles. The other had sharper corners and held a black mist devoid of sparkles. "A little while ago I presented Kozi with one of these." And he held up the square bottle between his thumb and forefinger. "He wears it on a band around his neck. Always close to his heart."

Kaoru let out an anguished moan as the raven went stiff in his arms. The black bottle in the Maker's hand flashed brightly and suddenly was mixed with silver sparkles. Everyone (Except Izam's) eyes went wide at the sudden realization to the meaning of these simple bottles.

"Now Kozi's bottle isn't very interesting right now. Just silver sparkles. But he knows it's special to him and he takes care of it." The Maker continued as He returned the dark bottle to His pocket. "I propose that I, instead, give you to Kozi." And He played idly with the yellow bottle. "Then you can be together until he gets his wings."

Mana's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out so the Maker hopped down and walked to the vampire. "How does that sound?" He asked with a sudden edge to his voice. "So very close, only a glass width away. Together forever, a century apart." Mana seemed frozen before Him and no one moved to help, the Maker had every one of them in His coils. He took off His sunglasses to show His angry brown eyes. "When he's ready for his wings we'll see how repentative you feel. Maybe I'll give a pair to you both." He put a hand over Mana's heart and everyone watched as Mana crumbled into dust.

As the dust blew away on the retreating wind He replaced his sunglasses and put the yellow bottle back in his pocket. He turned to regard the vampires and human one by one. "Yoshiki, take Gackt home and I want you to publicly admit to hiding him. You're an idiot for pretending he was dead." Yoshiki nodded, holding his coat to Toshiya's shoulder to try and stop the bleeding.

The Maker looked off in the distance and yelled. "Kyo! Get over here!" Then He turned to Izam who trembled next to Gackt with his eyes wide. "Your name is Izam right?" His demeanor suddenly gentle and Izam nodded quickly. "I want you to go home, dye your hair and go to bed. Just remember what Toshiya did and maybe someday you can return the favor." Izam looked at Toshiya who gave another pained smile. "Keep doing what you're doing and you may never see me again." Izam nodded quickly again, looking between Toshiya and the Maker before taking off, passing Kyo and Levin at lightning speed.

"Don't worry about him Kyo, come and get Toshiya and put him in my car." The Maker called before motioning for Gackt and Yoshiki to leave. Kyo nodded and replaced Yoshiki, leading the injured vampire away. The Maker nodded and smiled to Levin. "Good to see you again. If you'd be so kind as to go with Kyo I'll speak with you when I have a moment." Levin simply nodded and followed Kyo, Yoshiki and Gackt to the parking lot.

All of them gone the Maker walked up to Kaoru who still cradled the raven. "You keep thinking like that and I'll be giving Ryutaro a bottle. It was his choice." He patted the vampire on the shoulder once and left him gently holding the shell that once contained his lover's soul.

The Maker pressed a quick dial on His phone as He made His way slowly to the parking lot. "Sugizo? Yes I'm fine… No he didn't attack me. Here's the deal. Tell Pata he can take Ina home. I want you to take care of Ryuichi till a vampire can be found…no I'm not shitting you, take him home… You're welcome…Yes I'm sure he'll be very impressed with your wing span…Sugizo, you're a grown demon and you don't need my…" The Maker sighed but smiled. "No he doesn't think you're an egotistical asshole, he'll learn that later." The Maker rounded a sarcophagi and grinned at Sugizo as they both hung up. "Now I want you to call Sheena and have her pick up the brothers. She has room at her place and I think she'd be the best help for Khota."

"She's here already." Sugizo nodded and pointed to the she-demon already speaking with Kirito in the parking lot.

"Perfect. So is that everyone with a home? I want them safe and resocialized as gently as possible. I'll have Yoshiki start throwing more parties."

Sugizo nodded and waved Ryuichi over from where he'd been hovering near Ina and Pata. "We're gone then."

"And don't drop him Sugizo!" The Maker warned in a playful tone.

Sugizo got a mock-hurt look on his face before his eight wings emerged rather dramatically. "Come on Ryuichi. You get to stay at my place for a while." Once Ryuichi got over the intial shock he nodded and picked up his puppy.

The Maker turned away as Sugizo took off and nodded to Sheena who was already putting the brothers into her van. "Go home Pata. And take care of him." He called to the last pair of vampires before moving to His dark sea-green car. Kyo, Toshiya, and Levin occupied the back seat. "How is he?" He asked as He got into the drivers seat.

"Still bleeding but not as bad as before." Kyo replied, trying to keep Toshiya from staining the leather.
"Good. We'll feed him when we hit my house and he should recover." The Maker nodded and pulled out of the cemetery.

*

The Maker checked Toshiya's pulse and nodded. "He'll be like a new born kitten for a while but he's not gonna fade. Do you have room for one more Kyo? I suppose he could stay with Kiyoshi and Chirolyn.

"You don't want him with Kaoru?" Kyo raised an eyebrow.

"Not really." He replied, not elaborating.

"Demo, Maker-sama?" Toshiya whispered and the Maker moved to the edge of the couch once more. "Who'll look after Kaoru till Ryutaro gets back?"

The Maker sighed and played with one of Toshiya's cornbraids. "You will Toshiya. If you want too." Passing a hand over Toshiya's face the vampire slept and He stood. "Watch him Kyo. Levin, come." He lead the angel out of his basement and into the kitchen, indicating that Levin should sit. Grabbing a beer from the fridge He sat across from him. "So what does the old wind bag want now?"

"The message isn't really from Him." Levin replied unhappily.

The Maker paused, His beer half way to his mouth. "So you're going behind His back?"

"Not really." Levin motioned for the Maker to come closer and whispered in his ear.

Instantly the Maker's sunglasses came off and His big brown eyes held absolute shock. "You lost Kami-sama?!"

*