I'm so overwhelmed by the number of reviews for the first chapter. Thank you! I'm glad you all like it so far. I hope I can keep you from predicting what's going to happen.

Chapter 2
Loki stared for a moment longer at the prone body of Mayura before he shifted forms to his kakusei body. Kneeling down and without any regard for the blood that surrounded Mayura, he picked her up and carried her off to where the picnic blanket was and where everyone was waiting for him.

Yamino's eyes grew large when he saw that Loki was carrying Mayura. Concerned, he asked Loki, as he moved stuff off the blanket to make room for Mayura, "What happened, Loki-sama? What happened to Mayura-san?"

"Honestly, I don't know what happened. I felt a burst of power as I heard her scream," Loki replied as he laid her body on the blanket. "The power was unlike anything I felt before."

There was a long moment of silence while Loki arranged Mayura comfortably on the picnic blanket that was now clear of lunch. There was no apparent physical wound to account for the blood staining the front of her sundress.

"I found her lying in a pool of blood." He frowned as he got a closer look at the blood. He had attributed the slight iridescence of the blood to the light was filtering through the tress of where he found her but now that he could really look, he noticed that the iridescence was not due to the light but the blood itself. "This isn't regular blood. It's spiritual blood!" Loki exclaimed.

Yamino's eyes widened and Fenrir let out an anxious whine at Loki's observation. "Spiritual blood? As in, something happened to her spirit, Loki-sama?" asked Yamino worriedly.

Loki looked at Mayura with an inner eye to examine her spirit. Loki inhaled in shock. "Her soul, her spirit is gone! It's missing!" he said. Loki looked at his sons and Ecchan, "There is spiritual blood not because her spirit was attacked. It's more than that. It's because her soul has been ripped from her body!"

He looked at Mayura as he thought, 'What could have done this? I haven't ever heard of anything or anyone in recent times that could or would do this to someone. Why would Mayura be a target?'

"Daddy? Who did this to the mystery-girl?" asked Fenrir.

"I don't know, Fenrir," he looked at his puppy son, "Do you smell anything unusual?"

Fenrir sniffed Mayura's body, circling her to see if anything turned up. He shook his head, "All I get is an overwhelming stench of the blood. It's so strong, that it drowns out any smells that might be one her and in the area." He sneezed, "I didn't know that it smelled so strong."

Yamino leaned in slightly for a closer look. "If her soul has been ripped from the body, Loki-sama, why is her body still alive?"

"That's just it, Yamino-kun," Loki pulled an extra blanket out of the picnic basket and laid it over Mayura. "She's dying. And if her spirit isn't returned within a day, she will really die. A person can live without a soul for a little while."

The silent Ecchan spoke, "That's terrible, Loki-tama. What are we going to do?"

- - - -

Uh…what happened? Pushing herself up, Mayura looked around at her surroundings. Where am I?

A laugh caused her to whip around. "Where? You are in my home, my dear," answered the creature that she had met before.

Who are you? The she looked down at herself and gasped. What did you do to me! she shrieked.

The creature looked up from the drawing he had been working on, "Hm? Oh, just took your soul from you body." He, she decided that it was a he, looked at her excitedly, "Did you know that souls with no spiritual power are the best for certain types of rituals?" He gazed off into space with a dreamy expression. "It's so hard to find souls like yours. Especially as old as you are."

What do you mean by no spiritual power? What are you going to do with me? Mayura asked but received no answer. Mayura asked more questions but could not get any response out of the creature. She was forced to watch as he dug through cluttered cabinets looking for supplies.

- - - -

"What you are going to do is stay here," Loki told his sons and Ecchan. "I'm going to find Mayura's soul. There is no time to waste." He looked at Mayura's body and the new pool of spiritual blood that was slowly forming. 'It might be even less than that because of the amount of spiritual blood that has been lost already, much less the fact that she is still losing blood.'

He turned to leave but paused as a thought came to him. "Yamino, take Mayura back to the Agency. I need you to try to stop the bleeding. If it doesn't let up, her body might die before we can get her soul back."

"Yes, Loki-sama," Yamino said. Carefully, he picked up the blanket wrapped Mayura as his father stayed a moment longer to cast a spell of illusion so it would not look like Yamino was carrying anyone.

Turning from the departing group of people, Loki was stopped by the voice of Fenrir. "Daddy? Can I come help?" He wagged his tail hopefully, "I bet I could smell out the source of the person who hurt Mystery-girl."

Loki smiled at his offspring, "That's a good idea. We will start where I found her."

Fenrir wagged his tail happily, "Good, she may be irritating but she always brings the best sweets and sneaks food to me under the table."

"So that's why you aren't hungry at suppertime. I guess you don't need any snacks then," Loki said, teasing Fenrir.

"Daddy! That's so mean!" Fenrir said, rising to the bait.

Loki smiled at Fenrir, "Don't worry about it. I'll just tell Mayura when we get her back to stop sneaking you food." 'Though, that wouldn't stop her.' He thought grimly, 'First, we need to get her back.'

Loki and Fenrir set off to locate theperson whohad stolen Mayura's soul.

Reviews, feedback and constructive criticism welcome as always.

On a different note, if anyone is going to be at A-kon this weekend, look out for me. I'll be dressed as Kaitou Kid from Detective Conan (imagine a suit, cape and top hat that is all white) on Saturday, at least.