The Demon's Love

XI

"Lucretia, look, fireflies!" Rin cried, pointing to the flying glowing insects.

"I see them, Rin." The demon slayer replied, watching the young girl chase them.

"Don't wander too far." Said Naevia. "You don't want to get lost out here at night."

"I'll keep an eye on her." Lucretia replied and followed her.

"Make sure she stays out of trouble!" Jaken shouted.

"Jaken, leave them be." Said Kael, watching his ward and her bodyguard wander off. He actually wanted them to leave for a while. Something told him that danger was approaching, and he didn't want them around when it came.

"Kael?" said Naevia.

The demon lord turned to her. So, she was aware of it too. "I know." he said.

Jaken looked confused. "What? What's happening?"

Naevia rolled her eyes. "You're useless." She muttered.

"I am not useless, wench!" the toad-demon shouted. "I am Lord Kael's faithful servant. Isn't that right, milord?"

"Jaken."

"Yes, milord?"

"You're useless."

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"Come back, firefly!" Rin cried happily as she chased the glowing insect.

'Where does she get so much energy?' Lucretia wondered. 'Even with all my training, I'm just barely keeping up with her.'

"Wow, look at them all over here!" said Rin. "Look, Lucretia! Look! In the tree! There are so many! Isn't it beautiful?"

"Uh, I guess. Rin, what are you doing?"

"Climbing the tree! Rin wants to see what it's like."

Lucretia quickly ran beside the tree, ready to catch her in case she fell. There was no need to worry though, because she got up it quite easily. She was obviously having the time of her life.

"Come on up, Lucretia! It's so pretty."

Lucretia hesitated. "Um, ok."

He made it up much easier and faster than Rin did. She giggled when he sat next to her. "Wow, you got up fast."

He shrugged. "It's from all my training."

Rin looked curious. "What kind of training did you have?"

He shrugged again. "All different kinds. I have to be prepared for anything. There are lots evil demons that enjoy hurting people."

"Like Naraku." Said Rin.

He nodded. "Yeah, like him."

Rin sighed. "Rin can't figure out why people do bad things. There's so many bad people in the world."

She hugged her knees to her chest as her eyes teared up. Lucretia looked at her in concern, wondering what was wrong. He didn't want to see her sad.

"Rin, wants wrong?" he asked worriedly.

She sniffed. "Why do people have to be so bad? Why can't they just leave us all alone?"

Lucretia got the feeling that he was missing something. "Rin, did something happen to you before we met?" She flinched at his words and he became worried. "Never mind. You don't have to tell me. It's none of my business."

Rin wiped her eyes and shook her head. "No, it's ok. Rin just gets sad when she thinks about it." She looked up at the starry sky. "Rin lost her family a long time ago. They were killed by bandits. Rin was left all alone and was treated badly by the villagers."

Lucretia's heart went out to her. He knew what it was like to lose one's family. "Oh Rin, I'm so sorry."

Rin nodded. "Thank you, Lucretia. But Rin knows that they are happy in Heaven. Rin will see them again. Besides," she smiled slightly," Rin isn't sad or lonely anymore. Lord Kael is Rin's new daddy, and soon Lady Naevia will be Rin's new mommy. She has new parents." She leaned against him. "And Rin has you."

Lucretia blushed, staring at the girl resting on his shoulder. "Rin, I…"

He never got to finish what he was going to say. The branch they were sitting on suddenly snapped in two. Lucretia managed to stay on what was left of the branch, but Rin went tumbling out of the tree.

She never hit the ground though, and she stopped screaming when she realized this. Her momentary surprise was replaced by confusion as she realized she was floating in the air.

"Rin, what…" Lucretia said, equally as confused. He briefly noted something about the end of the branch he was sitting on. It hadn't snapped, it had been cut.

Rin looked at her suspended body then back at Lucretia. A moment later she was pulled by an unseen force, screaming all the way. Lucretia immediately jumped down from the tree and gave chase. Something, he didn't know what, but something had hold of Rin. But there was no way in hell Lucretia would let this unseen foe keep her.

"Rin, hang on!" he shouted.

Rin was already out of sight, but Lucretia continued in the direction she went in. If it was a demon that took her, he would kill it, if it was something else… well, he would deal with it when the time came.

"Lucretia, help Rin! Rin is up here!"

Skidding to a halt, Lucretia spotted the young girl dangling upside-down at least 80 feet in the air. He still couldn't see what was holding her. It was as if she were being held by the air itself.

"Lucretia!"

"Don't worry, Rin, I'll get you down!" 'I just have to figure out how.' He looked around for any sign of a demon. "Come out and face me, whoever you are!"

Whatever had taken Rin decided to accept his challenge. A large demon insect seemed to materialize out of thin air, towering over the young demon slayer, its fangs dripping. It looked up at Rin, its pincers snapping together in anticipation of the meal to come.

"No, down here!" Lucretia shouted.

The demon insect turned its attention back to Lucretia. The demon slayer whipped out his sickle, swinging it around in warning. The demon ignored the boy's warning and lashed out with its claws. Lucretia threw his sickle, slicing off the demon's limbs.

"Get him, Lucretia!" Rin cheered from the sky.

But Lucretia wasn't listening. He knew something was wrong. The demon's lost limb immediately grew back. He made a noise that Lucretia assumed was laughter and attacked again. Lucretia swung his sickle around, slicing into the demon repeatedly. But it was useless. Any injury he inflicted upon the demon immediately healed.

After striking one of the demon's legs, Lucretia suddenly realized something. He had faced demons before. He knew what it felt like when his weapon made contact with flesh. Something was definitely off with this demon. Each and every time he made a blow, the demon reacted to the injury and even bled, but Lucretia felt no contact. It felt as if he was attacking air, like his sickle wasn't making contact with the demon at all, regardless of what he saw.

Lucretia halted his attack as he realized what was really going on. "Enough with your illusions, Byakuya!" he shouted. "Come out and face me!"

An evil laughter rang out around him. The insect demon disappeared, proving that it was indeed an illusion. Byakuya dropped the illusion surrounding him, allowing himself to appear before the two humans.

"So, you figured it out, did you?" Byakuya snickered. "How did you know it was an illusion?"

Lucretia glared at the demon. "You forget, Naraku made me kill countless times. I know the feeling of my weapon slicing through flesh. When I struck your phony demon, I felt nothing."

Byakuya nodded his approval. "I'm impressed. That's an important factor for me to keep in mind."

"Let Rin go." Lucretia ordered.

Byakuya just laughed. "Oh, but where would the fun be in that?"

He waved his hand, removing his illusions. The area around them changed. They were much farther away from Kael and the others than he had thought they were, thanks to Byakuya's illusions. And now that the illusions were dropped, he also saw that it was Byakuya's vines that were holding Rin.

Byakuya chuckled. "You two are really amusing. I've been keeping an eye on you." He held out his hand and the eye that he had detached from himself during their first encounter floated into it. "The two of you are fun to watch." He said, sticking the eye into his empty eye socket.

"You can take out your eye?" asked Lucretia. 'That's disgusting!'

Byakuya laughed. "Not just my eye, but several limbs. It's just one of my many abilities. Like this one."

He snapped his fingers and several vines burst out of the ground around Lucretia, binding him tightly.

'Not this again.' he thought in irritation.

Byakuya laughed. "This time I won't fail in retrieving your jewel shard." He made the vines wrap around the demon slayer even tighter. "Consider yourself lucky. Your death will be quick and painless. But hers," his gaze shifted to Rin, "will be much longer and much more uncomfortable."

Lucretia was overcome with anger. "If you so much as touch her, I swear I'll-"

"You'll what?" mocked Byakuya. "You won't be able to do anything accept wait for her to join you in the other world." He cracked his knuckles. "So lets get started, shall we?"

He made a gesture for the vines holding Lucretia to come to him. Lucretia struggled to break free, but was unable to. But before he reached his captor, several blades of wind sliced through the vines, freeing him.

The same thing happened to the vines holding Rin. She fell screaming from the air as miasma escaped from the cut up vines. But before she hit the ground, an orb of white light snatched her out of the air and hovered to the ground. The orb turned into Kael holding Rin, who was clinging to him.

"Oh, Lord Kael, you saved us!" Rin cried happily.

Someone cleared their throat. Naevia flew over to them on her feather, tapping her closed fan against her palm. "Yeah, and I did absolutely nothing." She said sarcastically.

"Thank you, Lady Naevia!"

Someone else cleared their throat. This time it was Byakuya. "Hello, I'm still here." he said, angry that they were ignoring him.

Kael set Rin down. She quickly hurried over to Lucretia to see if he was alright.

"Oh, Lucretia, are you ok? You're not hurt, are you?"

The demon slayer shook his head. "No Rin, I'm fine."

"Then you better leave." Said Kael emotionlessly. "Take Rin and return to Jaken. We will handle this."

Lucretia nodded, taking Rin by the hand and leading her away. Byakuya let them go as he looked at the dog-demon and his sister curiously.

"So you saw through my illusions too." he said, scratching his head. He had created the illusion of Rin and Lucretia laughing and playing while he led the real Rin and Lucretia here. "I must be getting rusty. How did you see through my illusions?"

"You may be able to fool our eyes and ears," Kael explained, "but not our noses."

Byakuya shrugged. "Eh, guess you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Looks like I'll just have to kill you before I deal with those kids." He cracked his knuckles again. "Nothing personal."

Naevia glared at her brother. "Why do you listen to Naraku anyway? He doesn't give a damn about you. Once your usefulness is over, he'll dispose of you."

Byakuya showed no sign that he cared. "Perhaps, perhaps not. But you should be more grateful, he did give you life."

That remark infuriated Naevia. "Grateful? Grateful? Do you want to know why he created me? He gave me life just so I could die! He wanted to use me as a test against the Wind Scar! That was why he created me! After my purpose was fulfilled, I became nothing more than a slave, an expendable piece of trash! The only reason he didn't kill me was because he found use for me to do his dirty work! And should I disobey, he would torture me and threaten my life! That was what my life was to him!"

Byakuya gave a fake yawn. "Touché, aren't we? If you hated the life you were given so much, why didn't you just end it?"

"I would rather die than continue serving that bastard." Naevia seethed. "But I wanted to live. There is so much to live for. But as Naraku's slave, I wasn't living. And if there truly was absolutely no way to escape him, then I would have died trying to kill him myself. Worst case scenario, I would have taken him down with me; at least that would put an end to his evil ways."

Byakuya continued looking bored. "As interesting as this is, I would rather be spilling your blood. So lets get started, shall we?"

Kael took a step forward. "You will need more than illusions to defeat this Kael."

Byakuya laughed. "Oh, don't worry, I know that. I have plenty of other abilities. Illusions are just my specialties. Like this for example."

He vanished, but immediately reappeared with five duplicates. The six Byakuyas surrounded Kael, circling him.

"You say that my illusions can't fool your sense of smell." The Byakuyas said in unison. "Well then I'll just have to improvise."

He summoned more vines. They expelled miasma, rotting and decaying everything around them. The smell of death surrounded them, overpowering even Kael's sense of smell.

"You caught me off guard last time, but that won't happen again." said the Byakuyas. "Lets see what my sister and the great Lord Kael are capable of."

"As you wish." Kael replied. "Naevia, duck."

The wind-demon didn't need to be told twice. She immediately dropped to her knees as Kael spun around, unleashing his energy whip. He aimed for the Byakuyas' throat, intending to decapitate them. But just before the whip made contact with each of them, their heads popped off, allowing the whip to pass through the empty space between the neck and head.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Naevia.

Each head reattached to the neck. "I already explained this to your pet humans. I can detach and reattach my limbs. Quite a handy technique."

"Hmm, interesting." Kael replied, unsheathing Toukijin as Naevia held up her fan. They stood back to back, keeping their eyes on the Byakuyas. "Perhaps you will prove to be an interesting challenge after all."

Naevia took that as her queue to attack. "Dance of Blades!"

Her attack hit three of the Byakuyas. They faded away when the attack cut through them. At the same time, Kael charged forward. He buried his sword in the Byakuya on the left before swiping it sideways, unleashing his demonic energy. When the attack subsided, no Byakuyas were anywhere to be seen.

'He couldn't have been defeated that easily.' Kael thought. 'He's stronger than that, but where did he go?'

"Looking for me?"

The two demons looked up to see a grinning Byakuya floating in the air on his paper crane. He waved at them mockingly as he reached into his robes and pulled out his lotus flower. He lifted it to his nose and smelled the plant.

"Ah, heavenly. And soon I will be smelling roasted flesh. Yours to be exact."

He casually dropped the flower, letting it fall in front of Kael and Naevia. It barely touched the ground before flames flew out in all directions. Kael and Naevia jumped back, the demon lord easily avoiding the flames while Naevia had to use her wind powers to keep the flames back.

Byakuya suddenly appeared behind Kael. The dog-demon knew he was there the moment he appeared. Whirling around, he swung Toukijin. Byakuya detached his upper torso from his lower half, allowing the blade to miss its target. Kael growled in irritation and swung his sword in a diagonal direction, slicing apart Byakuya's upper half. But the two halves just faded away after the blow was made, another illusion.

Naevia had managed to avoid the flames of the lotus flower, but as soon as she thought she was safe, something unexpected happened. The flames began circling around her, trapping the wind-demon in a tornado of fire.

"You're no match for me, sister." Said Byakuya, as he stepped through the fire, unaffected by the flames. "Naraku created me to replace you; meaning I'm your better in every way."

Naevia glared at him. "Or you're just replacing me as his toy. Dance of Blades!"

Her attack was met by a barrier. Byakuya laughed at her failed attempt to attack him. "You just keep proving my point."

His barrier was suddenly shattered as Toukijin cut through it, passing through the fire as well. But this Byakuya was yet another illusion, much to Kael's annoyance.

The tornado of fire burned out once Kael cut through it, freeing Naevia from risk of being burned. But both she and Kael were immediately surrounded once again by a dozen Byakuyas circling around them.

"Stop with all your tricks!" Naevia snapped. "Fight us already, or are you such a coward that you'll just keep up with your illusion?"

The Byakuyas laughed. "Is using your abilities a sign of cowardness? I'm just having fun."

Apparently he was the only one. "This Kael is getting tired of your games. Drop your illusions and fight like a real demon."

"I am fighting. You're just no match for my illusion techniques, so you're trying get me to stop."

Naevia held up her fan. "I've had enough of this. Dance of the Dragon!"

A tornado appeared in the path the Byakuyas were moving in as they circled the two demons. Upon contact, each illusion disappeared, until only one Byakuya remained.

"Sister, you spoil my fun."

"Then let the fun start again. Dance of Blades!"

Byakuya duplicated himself two more times. Naevia's attack hit the center one, which was, predictably, an illusion. One of the remaining Byakuya fled as the other one attacked Kael head on. The demon lord knew this one was an illusion and didn't even bother to attack it. The phony Byakuya passed right through Kael and faded away.

The remaining Byakuya chuckled. "Careful, Kael. What if you were wrong and that did turn out to be the real me."

Kael gave Byakuya an uncaring look. "You're duplication has become predictable. I grow tired of attacking illusions."

"So do I." said Naevia. "How about trying something new?"

"Trying something new?" Byakuya repeated. An evil grin crept over his face. Very well. Lets see how you like this next trick, sister dear."

His arm shot out, growing longer as he reached for her. Before she could react, his hand reached inside Naevia's chest and pulled something out, though he left no indication that he had even touched her at all, save for the fact that he was now holding something.

"Well look at what we have here." he said, showing Naevia the pulsing red object he had taken from her. "Doesn't this look familiar?"

Naevia's eyes widened with realization. "But, that's…"

"Your heart." Byakuya finished for her. "A little trick our father taught me." He smirked at the horrified look on Naevia's face. "What's wrong, sis? Feel like you've been in this situation before?"

Naevia took a step back, shaking her head. "No, it can't be."

"Calm yourself, Naevia." Said Kael emotionlessly. "That is not your heart."

"What?"

"Listen closely, feel your chest. Your heart is still within you."

Naevia immediately put her hand to her chest, feeling her heart beating beneath it. She sighed in relief before looking back at the organ in her brother's hand.

"But he's holding-"

"Don't forget his technique." Said Kael, now sounding impatient. "It is but an illusion, like everything else."

The truth hit Naevia like a slap in the face. She felt foolish for falling for such an obvious trick, and infuriated that Byakuya had pulled it on her.

"You son of a b***h!" she shouted, unleashing her Dance of Blades attack repeatedly. "How dare you do something like that against me!"

Byakuya laughed as he produced a barrier to block his sister's attack. "Can I help it if you're so gullible?"

"You are the gullible one," said Kael, "if you think that barrier can stop my blade."

He charged at the illusionist. Byakuya just smirked as he unleashed another one of his powers. Several vines shot out of the ground and reached for Kael. The demon lord simply cut down everything in his path, ignoring the miasma that seeped out of the severed vines.

But before he reached his target, the cloud of miasma flew at Byakuya, hiding him from Kael's view. The dog-demon ended up cutting nothing but air.

"Are your intentions to test my strength," he asked, "or my patience."

Byakuya appeared several feet away, holding his lotus flower to his nose. He chuckled at Kael's remark. "You're missing the point. I didn't come here for you."

He aimed the flower at Kael. Flames shot out of it. Naevia immediately used her wind powers to redirect the flames, but they had no affect on them.

Kael swung Toukijin, unleashing a vast amount of power, consuming the approaching flames. Byakuya was unable to escape the blast, no matter what illusion he used. But strangely enough, he was grinning.

"You're a fool." He said, as the attack hit him. But he didn't react to it at all. He simply faded away. He was an illusion.

Naevia growled in frustration. "Another one? Why won't he give it a rest?"

Kael's eyes widened as he finally displayed some emotion. "Because he's not trying to fight us. He never was. He said he didn't come here for us."

Naevia's eyes widened. "The illusions were a distraction. He's after Rin and Lucretia!"

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Lucretia led Rin along by the hand, practically dragging her. Rin didn't care, not as long as they were getting away from Byakuya. It was strange, he and Naevia looked so much alike, except for the gender, yet they were so different. Unlike Naevia, Byakuya was loyal to Naraku and loved the evil deeds his master made him do.

Lucretia paused for a moment and looked around. "Where are Jaken and Ah-Un? I'm sure they were in this direction."

"They were." said Rin. "Look, there's the tree with the fireflies."

They jumped when the heard an evil laugh. Byakuya appeared out of thin air, dropping his illusion of invisibility. "You trust your eyes too much. I easily led you where I wanted by making you think you were heading in the right direction."

He snapped his fingers and the environment changed as the illusion vanished. Rin and Lucretia had no idea where they were. Byakuya had gotten them lost.

"Humans." He laughed. "So weak, so predictable."

He snapped his fingers again. Rin and Lucretia were suddenly ensnared in vines. Rin was completely wrapped up in a cocoon, leaving only her eyes uncovered; Byakuya wanted her to see what he was going to do to Lucretia. And speaking of Lucretia, His arms and legs were bound tightly, pulling in opposite directions so he was left dangling several feet in the air in an X formation.

Byakuya smirked as he hovered over to the young demon slayer. "You got away from me last time, but that won't happen again. My master is getting rather impatient. He wants his jewel shard back."

"You can tell Naraku that he can go to Hell!" Lucretia snapped. "And so can you!"

Byakuya laughed. "If we were concerned about that, do you think we would be the way we do?"

"So you don't care?"

"It's not that." Byakuya replied, tracing his finger over Lucretia's back until he felt that place the jewel shard was implanted. "We just enjoy ourselves too much. Now then, no more talking, no more fooling around. Now it's time to die." He looked in the direction Kael and Naevia were in. They had figured out about his illusions. "Oh, I better get a move on."

"'Oha'u 'o!" Rin cried, her voice muffled by the vines covering her mouth. "Ea'e 'im a'one! On' hur' 'im!"

"Patience, my dear." Said Byakuya, burrowing his claw into Lucretia's back, earning a cry of pain from the boy. "I'll get to you in a minute."

His claw closed over the jewel shard and pulled it out of the young demon slayer's back. Lucretia's eyes glazed over as the life left them. A hiss of air escaped his lips as his body went limp, his heartbeat stopping almost instantly.

"'O!" Rin shouted, tears pouring down her cheeks. "'Oha'u! 'Oha'u!"

Byakuya held up the bloody jewel shard and sneered at Rin. "Sorry, my dear, Lucretia is no longer with us."

"Mur'erer!"

"Can't understand you." He removed the vines covering her mouth so he could hear her anguished cries. "What'd you say?"

"Murderer!" Rin shouted again. "You killed him! You killed him!"

Byakuya glanced at Lucretia before smirking. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, you're about to be reunited."

He made a swishing gesture with his finger and a vine shot at Rin as if to stab her. There was a flash of light and a shower of blood as the end of the vine burrowed into flesh, but it wasn't the target Byakuya had intended to hit. Instead, the vine burrowed into Kael's flesh.

Kael winced as he ripped the vine out of his flesh. He was suddenly angry with himself. He had foolishly just taken an injury for Rin. This was why he always saw love as a weakness. Willing to risk his life for someone else always seemed like a flaw in his personality. He had decided long ago never to let this happen to him. But lots of things have changed since then.

"Rin, are you alright?" he asked.

Rin was crying loudly. "No, no, Rin is not alright. Lord Kael, he killed Lucretia!"

The widening of Kael's eyes was the only indication that he cared, though inside he was feeling emotions that he could hardly put into words. Naevia, on the other hand, had no problem showing her emotions. Her already red eyes began glowing as the wind whipped violently around her.

"YOU BASTARD!" she bellowed. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

She swung her fan, unleashing powerful blades of wind, several times bigger than the usual ones. Byakuya's eyes widened as he quickly put up a barrier. Naevia's attacks slammed into his barrier repeatedly until it shattered. Byakuya quickly dodged her next wave of attacks, splitting into several copies at the same time.

"Sorry, sis, but I'll have to postpone this family feud." The Byakuyas said as they flew off. The vines unleashed a heavy cloud of miasma in the process. "I have a jewel shard to deliver."

It was impossible to see or smell him within the heavy cloud of miasma, and even then there were too many Byakuyas to attack. By the time Naevia had blown away the miasma, there were only a few Byakuyas left, all of them illusions.

"DAMN YOU, GET BACK HERE!" Naevia yelled.

Kael was much calmer than the wind-demon, or at least he appeared to be, as he freed Rin from the vines then went to get Lucretia down. Rin immediately ran to Lucretia's body, falling upon it and crying loudly.

"Lucretia, Lucretia, get up! Get up! You can't die!"

"What's all the ruckus?" Jaken had finally arrived on the scene, pulling Ah-Un along with him. "Oh my, what happened here?"

Naevia grabbed the toad-demon by his collar and lifted him up, glaring at him. "You want to know what happened here?" she yelled in his face.

"Well… I was curious." Jaken muttered, clearly terrified by Naevia's wrath.

"Then take a look!"

She threw him over in the direction of Rin and the motionless Lucretia. Jaken groaned and lifted his face out of the dirt. He blinked in surprise when he saw Lucretia's body. "Oh, he's dead."

"He is not dead!" Rin shouted, cradling Lucretia's head. "He can't be dead! Lucretia, you can't die and leave Rin here! Don't leave Rin, Lucretia!"

Kael watched the scene between his ward and the dead boy. He had never seen Rin so upset. He had never seen anyone so heartbroken. He was actually feeling bad for her, and he was feeling upset himself that the boy was dead. Him, the cold-hearted, uncaring Lord Kael, was feeling grief. He hadn't felt this emotion since the death of his mother and father.

Rin looked up at the demon lord, tears still running down her cheeks. "Lord Kael, please, please help him. Bring him back to Rin. Don't let him die."

Kael raised an eyebrow. "What would you give to have him back?"

"Anything!" Rin cried.

'She cares that much?' Thought Kael, stepping forward. "Tell me, Rin, how do you feel about this boy?"

Rin looked confused; she was too upset to understand what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"You know what this Kael means."

Rin sniffed a few times and looked back at Lucretia's face. "Rin loves him. Rin loves Lucretia very much."

"Ha!" Jaken laughed. "You're just a child. What do you know about lo-"

He was silenced by Naevia stepping on him.

"Rin knows!" the girl cried, nuzzling the boy's hair. "Rin loves Lucretia!"

"Like family?" asked Kael. "Like a friend? Or more?"

Rin wasn't sure what he meant, but her love for Lucretia wasn't the same she felt for her family. She used to have brothers, and she loved them, but it wasn't the same for how she felt for Lucretia. And it wasn't just the love of a friend either. She'd had friends, still did, in the past that she loved dearly, but it still wasn't the same.

"More." She said. "Please, save him."

Kael unsheathed Tenseiga. "Very well, this Kael will bring him back to life on one condition."

"Anything."

"You must tell him of your feelings by the end of the week." He was really getting tired of watching the two of them dance around each other. He wanted to get that out of the way so he wouldn't need to worry about it anymore. "Is that understood?"

"Yes." She would do anything it took. "Rin will tell Lucretia she loves him."

Kael nodded, and summoned up Tenseiga's power. The demons of the underworld appeared, feeding on Lucretia's life force. There were quite a few, indicating that they had been wanting to feed off him for a long time since he had cheated death. And once they completely drained his body of life, not even Kael could summon the boy's soul back from the other world.

'Sorry, but you won't have him.' He thought, swinging Tenseiga.

It took two swipes to clear all the little demons, sending them back to the underworld. The life force they had stolen from Lucretia returned to him as his soul reentered his body.

Lucretia's eyes flew open and he breathed in deeply, sucking down the cool air. "Mother? Father?" he muttered. He had seen them. They were waiting for him in some bright place. He wasn't exactly sure where since he had not reached the destination yet. He had suddenly been pulled backwards. The next thing he knew, he was here on the ground, with his head in Rin's lap… His head in Rin's lap!

"Rin!" he cried, blushing madly. He sat up, looking around in confusion. What had happened? He looked at Rin for an explanation and saw that she was crying. "Rin, what's wro-"

"Lucretia!" Rin cried, throwing herself at him, embracing him tightly. "Rin was so worried! Rin thought she lost you!"

"Lost me?" said Lucretia. Suddenly it all came back to him. Byakuya had taken the jewel shard in his back. 'But then, how am I alive?' He got his answered when he saw Kael sliding Tenseiga back into its sheath. "I died. You saved me."

Kael continued to pretend he didn't care. "We are leaving. We will find a place to rest. Lucretia, you may ride on Ah-Un until you recover."

The boy nodded. "Thank you."

Rin refused to let him go, even as they climbed on the dragon-demon's back. Lucretia continued to assure her that he was alright, but Rin refused to let go. She had almost lost him, and she wasn't going to let him go now or anytime soon.