"I told you, Mana. Shinya is not here. It is a large forest, and difficult trails. What makes you think he could find his way here?"

Mana gritted his teeth until they hurt and, ignoring Gackt, left the library and started up the stairs. Gackt ran ahead and stopped him at the top of the staircase. "Please. Let me give you the tour, Mana sama."

Gackt had forgotten how graceful Mana’s movements were. His footsteps were soft and predatory, even when he moved his eyes to look in each room they moved softly and evenly.

After showing him his own bedroom, Gackt started back down the hall, quickly passing by Shinya’s room. Mana could sense his tensing and stopped in front of the door. "What is this room? This is where you are hiding him, ne?"

"Ne, Mana. It is just a storage closet." His voice was too frantic to be realistic, he mentally kicked himself.

Mana pushed his way into the bedroom. "Storage closet? It is rather big to be a storage closet, Gackt san." Mana stepped in farther and could see a crumpled jacket on the floor beside the bed. He recognized it as one that Shinya had once worn.

"What is this then?" Kozi moved past Mana and picked up the jacket. Mana took it from him and squeezed it in his fingers, deep down in the fabric he could still feel a trance of body heat from when Shinya wore it. "He was here recently."

Gackt jerked the jacket away from Mana and threw it to the floor. "So what if he was? You will never find him."

Mana smiled a little bit, something he didn’t do very often. Gackt didn’t even see his hand flying towards him until the back of Mana’s hand slammed across his cheek and knocked Gackt unconscious. He crumpled to the floor.

He signaled to Kozi who crossed the room and threw open the curtains.

"Leave him here to burn when the sun comes up."

J and Ino had moved Shinya out of the room and down the hall to one of the old bedrooms. All they found here was a few blankets in the corner of the room, but at least the window wasn’t broken and even though the fire wasn’t lit Shinya was a bit warmer, and wrapped in one of the blankets he seemed to be fine.

J sat in the doorway peering out into the pitch black of the hall. He couldn’t see a thing, how was he supossed to know if they were coming? Mana always moved more silent than the wind.

Ino had his arm around Shinya’s shoulder.

"How long have you been a vampire?" Shinya whispered to Ino.

Ino shifted in the dark and leaned back against the wall. "J and I have been vampires for about ten years…we were part of an organization of "Christian right-handers," that’s what they call themselves. We had been born into it. Their goal is the destroy any and all evil. Of course they think relationships between two men is evil, and they found out and J and I. They were going to hang us, and then burn our bodies because they think that the evil spirts can still survive in the dead and then posess the living.

"They have been looking for vampires for about seventy years, since they discovered they are real, and they discovered Gackt. Gackt wants to destroy the group and be left in peace and that particular night he had been observing the group…"

Ino clutched a small weed beside him, ripping it right from the group as he jerked on it. "J…" His voice trailed off as J let his mouth fall down to Ino’s neck where he nibbled at the skin until Ino moaned.

They had hidden themselves on the forest floor among the tall shrubs and weeds that grew anywhere that there wasn’t a tree shooting up into the air.

Ino stared up at the blue sky peaking between the branches of the enormous oak trees. J had already removed all of their clothes, he only wore the Amber-stone necklace tied around his neck, that Ino had made for him. He kissed Ino’s stomach and ticked his ribs until Ino pushed him away laughing.

"Don’t touch there." Ino giggled.

"Where should I touch?…Here?" He cupped Ino.

Ino giggled again. "J na hentei"

J chuckled and kissed Ino again.

"I love you, Ino." J was moaning ten minutes later while Ino was trembling and clutching his shoulders below him. Twenty minutes later they were asleep there on the forest floor, at least J was. Ino was stroking his hand over J’s hair as they faced each other on the ground.

Ino’s hand stopped as he heard a branch braking behind them, then a tiny gasp. He leaned his head back quickly and stared up at a young girl. Her big, blue eyes were open wide in shock and her mouth hung open. She couldn’t have been more than ten years olds but she knew exactly what was going on. The girl screamed for her parents and ran off.

J jerked awake and saw her just as she disappeared. "Oh, no." They both started to frantically dress. Ino only had his shirt on, J his pants, when the father and two friends came running through the forest and saw them. "Holy shit!"

The men started screaming for the other members of the "Christian right-handers." J and Ino were chased down and dragged off to the location of the moble-town, where the group had currently raised their tents. At the town center Ino and J were hit over the back of their hands to stun them and make sure they stayed down.

They were made to stand on their knees by each others sides while the leader came to stand before them. He was dressed in simple priest’s uniform. With one look at them he didn’t need to be told what had been going on, and he asked no questions. Everyone knew the rules of the Bible, and the leader passed his judgement. "They will be hung at nighfall. We will burn their bodies at midnight."

Some town members nodded in approvial, one being Ino’s mother.

As the platforms for the hangings were assembled J and Ino had been put into separate tents and tied down so that they could not see each other before they died.