Kaien ran as he attempted to find his children and the vampires that were bound to be with them. He had already been to the gym looking for Zero and Seiren and had been told by one of the vampires there that they had left about ten minutes before though he hadn't been able to tell Kaien why they had left. Kaien had assumed that it was on the same mission he was on: finding Yuuki and Kaname.

Knowing that this was most likely their goal, he had then gone to the clearing where Kaname and Yuuki had set up lessons, but it was devoid of all life. There were two trails that lead from the clearing in addition to the main path, both fairly fresh. He didn't know who had made them but something told him that one belonged to Zero and Seiren and the other to Yuuki and Kaname.

He looked at both the paths carefully, but could find no indication as to which pair of vampires had taken which trail. In the end, he decided that it didn't really matter who had taken what path because they both seemed to be going in the same direction and he needed to find both groups. In the end, he chose the path on the left, which, incidentally, was the path that Yuuki and Kaname had taken earlier that morning. He followed the disturbed leaf litter and realized that whoever had come this way had been in an exceptional hurry because of the distance between the disturbances.

He briefly wondered if they had been running towards something or away from it before rejecting the first possibility. None of them, except maybe Yuuki would run away from a fight. They were still young and hadn't learned that sometimes the best thing to do is to leave rather than to fight it out. He hoped that they would live long enough to learn that.

He continued along the path until it branched and he debated which fork to take but decided on the more well traveled of the two. After a few more seconds he exited the forest and found himself looking at the bloody aftermath of a battle of some kind. He looked around wildly hoping that he wouldn't see anyone he knew among the bodies. He did, but they weren't laying among the injured, rather they were moving through them.

"Aidou," he called, attempting to get the blond noble's attention. He looked up at his name and his eyes lit with confusion as he caught sight of the headmaster. He made his way carefully through the carnage until he was at Kaien's side.

"What can I do for you, Headmaster?" Aidou asked, genuinely confused. The headmaster had never spoken to him directly that he could remember and he wondered what had sparked this conversation.

"Have you seen either Yuuki, Kaname, Zero or Seiren?"Kaien asked, fighting the urge to grab the younger man by the shoulders in his quest for knowledge.

"Have I ever!" Aidou breathed. "Kaname-sama and Yuuki-sama were here about five minutes ago. It was amazing! I knew that purebloods had powers we couldn't imagine but . . ."

"What happened?" Kaien demanded wondering if the poor boy had lost his mind. "The hunters attacked, and while the others tired to hold them off, I went to find Kaname-sama hoping that he could do something. We were getting slaughtered. Anyway, I led him and Yuuki back here and then . . . Kaname teleported the entire hunter forces away before erecting that." His last words were said with a gesture at the wall.

"Kaname did that?" Kaien asked, though he had already suspected that Kaname had been the one to do it since he doubted Yuuki had the control necessary to do it even if she had the raw power necessary for such a task. "And then what happened?"

"Nothing," Aidou replied shifting uncomfortably under the gaze of the headmaster. "Once he finished, he asked us to clean up here and he and Yuuki left."

"Which way did they go?" Kaien demanded. "I need to find them; there are things we need to discuss."

"They went that way," Aidou said pointing back the way Kaien had just come. Kaien rubbed his eyes, if they had gone that way, he should have run into them on his way here. His mind suddenly jumped to the fork in the path that he decided not to take.

"Thank you," Kaien said before running back into the woods to take continue his search for Kaname and Yuuki. As he watched the headmaster leave, Aidou wondered if he should have told the older man about how much raising the barrier had taken from Kaname, but he still felt that it was something he should never mention again . . . if he wanted to live.

The strange behavior of the young noble was lost on Kaien as he now had a clue as to where to search for his daughter and her . . . lover. Kaien fought back a shiver at the last word. But he could no longer think of Kaname as her brother now that he knew the truth, even though he knew that he was her brother. But nothing could have prepared him for the site that awaited him when he did find them.

ooOO88OOoo

Sorry ya'll I know that is a crappy place to leave a chapter, but it was the best place for me to end it this time if you wanted an update this week. Besides, cliffhangers can be good motivation for an author so that our readers don't hunt us down and kill us.

And not to say that any review is more important than any other, but the next reviewer will be number 200 and I will do something nice for whomever that may be. I will send a PM to whoever that happens to be :)

And thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter as well as read this one.

Stickdonkeys.