Conrad and his men had no luck trying to find their followers. The tracks dead ended at a river. The river washed away any traces of what direction they had taken. Conrad split his men into three groups: one to go north at the river, one to go south at the river, and the third to join him in returning to the camp. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing. It was almost as though someone had lured him and half the guards away from the camp so Yuri would be less defended.

"Shit!" Conrad shouted, making his group stare at him strangely. "We've got to fly back to camp. Your Maou Heika is in danger!"

Every one of the soldiers Conrad picked were fiercely loyal to his godson. They wasted no time in returning to the camp. As they neared, Conrad's stomach dropped in dread. A howl of absolute anguish pierced through the forest. It had to be Gwendal. Conrad's fears were confirmed when they got into camp. Blood was everywhere. The tents were shredded. In the middle of it all lay Gwendal in a pool of his own blood. Or at leas Conrad assumed it was Gwendal. He had never before seen his brother's shape-shifted form. Both of the wolf's back legs were broken and Conrad cringed when he saw bones poking through. Gwendal lifted his head and when he saw it was his brother, he shifted back into his human self.

"Conrad, those bastards took him. I, there were... too many... of them." Gwendal moved to sit up and gasped.

Conrad knelt beside his brother, wishing for the first time ever that he had maryoku to at least take some of the pain away. Riding to the castle like this was going to be a nightmare for the older mazoku. They were going to have to ride fast. Conrad knew of only one way to keep Gwendal from feeling pain and he hoped his brother would forgive him later. He reared back and hit Gwendal square in the jaw, knocking him out cold. It took him and two other soldiers to drape Gwendal across his horse.

Conrad sent a message to the castle before they headed out, so it was only one day of hard riding before they met up with Gunter, Gisela, and another large portion of army. Gisela wasted no time in ordering people to lay Gwendal carefully out on a mat. He groaned only once while they moved him. Gisela's brow furrowed as she released her maryoku and when she felt that she had done what she could, she gave Gwendal an herbal tea to knock him out for the rest of the journey back to the castle. They did not need an angry, hurt mazoku on their hands.

They arrived back at the castle to find a worn and tattered Yozak. Claw marks and bite marks covered his upper body. He had removed his shirt and was tending to the spots he could reach. The ones on his back still oozed blood. It wasn't in Gisela's nature to ignore the wounded, but she made an exception for Yozak. The one time she had tried to help him many, many years ago, he snapped at her. The only person he allowed to tend his wounds was his captain. With the look on Conrad's face, she knew Yozak would be well taken care of. Everyone waited while Yozak gave the rundown of what he had found out which was only that the wolves did have Yuri and were heading north back to their lands. Gwendal made a choking sound. The rest of the group looked at him in sadness. To take an army up there to get their king back would be an act of war.

Conrad motioned for Gisela to heal the worst of Yozak's wounds and the spy would have protested, but at the look on his captain's face, he shut his mouth. After the deepest wounds had been healed, Gisela and Gunter took Gwendal inside to rest for the night. As soon as they were alone, Conrad spoke.

"Yozak this... this is the worst I've seen you look. I... here, let me help."

He pulled the cloth and disinfectant out of Yozak's hands and started where he left off. Yozak flinched when Conrad moved over the larger scrapes that were left, but otherwise was silent as he let his captain clean his wounds. When he had finished, Yozak tried to hand Conrad the roll of bandages, but he pushed them away.

"Why don't we take a bath first?"
The last bath they had flashed through Yozak's mind and he uncharacteristically blushed. The spy had made such a fool of himself that he didn't speak to Conrad for three months. To think, kissing a superior officer, even if he was a good friend! He wasn't sure if he could survive another bath with the devastatingly handsome, sexy half-mazoku.

"I-I-um, I'm n-not so sure that would be a good idea, sir" Damn his stuttering! The captain was the only person to ever make him feel tongue-tied.

Conrad moved to stand in front of Yozak. He raised an eyebrow. "On the contrary, I think a bath would be wonderful." He walked back behind Yozak, leaned forward, and whispered in his best friend's ear. "We cannot leave until tomorrow morning. Gwendal still needs to recover a bit more be fore Gisela will let him go and he's skin us alive if we left without him. So, I plan to enjoy my evening with a very hot, sexy red-head."

Conrad couldn't hide a smile as he gingerly slid an arm under his spy's shoulders, helping the younger of the pair to his feet. "You have carried me more times than I can keep track of. It's nice to do this for you for a change."

"Don't get used to it, Captain," Yozak smiled. "I don't plan to get hurt like this again any time soon."

They made their way slowly to the baths. The two men undressed and slid into the warm water simultaneously. Conrad stood still in the water for several minutes as though he were contemplating something serious. If Yozak hadn't been watching so intently, he wouldn't have noticed the look of unsure determination and the slight nod. He felt rather confused, but didn't even have an opportunity to ask. Conrad swam over to stand in front of him.

"Yozak, I have a confession." Uh-oh, thought Yozak. Here it comes. He doesn't want me around. "The last time we bathed together you kissed me." Yozak nodded, his stomach lurching. "I must say it was a bit... unexpected, though not unwanted. In fact, I really enjoyed it and would have told you that, but you disappeared. This time around, I'm going to make sure you know how I feel. Yozak I didn't exactly have the most noble intentions in mind when I asked you to bathe with me. What I really wanted-"

"Is this," Yozak finished for him before pushing away from the wall and kissing Conrad with every ounce of love he felt for him. Conrad moaned against his lips and Yozak could help but respond in kind.

"Your room or mine?" Yozak whispered between kisses.

"I. Don't. Care." Conrad's brain had begun to fog over.

"Follow me then." Yozak struggled to push himself away. Stopping right now seemed almost like torture. His brain eventually won out. Privacy would probably be a good thing. The spy winced as he pushed himself out of the bath which snapped Conrad out of his haze.

"We should probably wait until you feel better."

"No worries, this is nothing. Don't start something you don't intend to finish." Yozak flashed Conrad his charming, crooked grin. Conrad was out of the pool in a flash and had his arms around his spy once again. The pair made their way slowly back to Yozak's room and slammed the door behind them.

TTTTTTTTTT

Gwendal lay in his bed, fuming. Well it would be more accurate to say his was imprisoned on his bed by Gunter. He didn't care that his oldest friend had his health in mind. Yuri was out there and he would do whatever he could to get free from Gunter's surprisingly strong hold on him. Gwendal had tried every kind of force. None of it worked. Gunter simply strengthened the bonds holding him down. It was time to get dirty.

"Gunter we need to go get Yuri."

"Gisela said to keep you here until tomorrow when she shows up."

"I'm just worried about our poor Heika. All alone out there amongst those evil wolves." Gwendal had never tried to guilt someone into anything before and it left a bad taste in his mouth, but he needed desperately to go get his king and lover. He sighed and it didn't take much for him to put a worried, sad, devastated look on his face. "Who knows what they will do to him?"

"Gwendal I... I... never go against my daughter's medical advice."

"He's probably scared. He didn't even know he was in danger and we ALL let him get kidnapped." The more Gwendal thought about it, the more terrified he was. "Please Gunter. Please let's go and rescue our king."

Gunter's eyes filled with tears and he let Gwendal up. "Oh dear Heika. How could I have allowed this to happen? We will find you, and when we do I can only hope beyond all hope that you will forgive me of this atrocity."

Gwendal felt only slightly guilty about tearing Gunter up like that. Whatever he had to do to go find his king. "Gunter focus. We need to gather the soldiers and supplies. I'll find Conrad and Yozak, you get Gisela and Anissina. We'll need everyone we can get. Send for Geigen Hube. He'll be in charge while we take back our king."

Gunter rushed out of the room with a nod. This was the Gwendal that he hadn't seen in many days. The chief advisor couldn't help but feel hope that they would be successful.

Gwendal took off for Conrad's room. He was a little confused when he arrived and found that no one was in there. Maybe they were in Yozak's room discussing tactical plans for the possible upcoming fight. The spy's room was not far from Conrad's, so in no time at all he was knocking on the door. Frantic scuffling could be heard. Something slammed into the wall. Gwendal panicked, thinking someone had shown up to finish the job on Yozak. He kicked open he door, barged in, and froze in embarrassed shock. From the looks of things, neither one of the men had been dressed seeing as their clothes were wrinkled and buttoned haphazardly.

"I thought something was wrong. I apologize." Gwendal looked down and cleared his throat. "We're leaving tonight. I was just letting you know to get ready." Gwendal looked from one man to the other and back. "Congratulations to the both of you." The General spun on his heel and walked quickly from the room.

TTTTTTTTTT

Yuri woke to the smell of musty, wet fur surrounding him. The back of his head throbbed where he had hit it on the ground. He felt the knot. There was a scabbed over gash about an inch long. Dried blood caked in his hair. He shuddered, then jumped to his feet, nearly falling over from blood loss. Gwendal! Where was he?! What had happened? Wolves. There had been a lot of wolves who attacked Gwendal who was... also a wolf.

"That was a crazy and very real dream," Yuri muttered to himself, hoping with his whole being that he really had been dreaming.

"Not a dream, Your Highness."

Yuri jumped and yelped. Out of the trees to his left, the first wolf he had seen walked torwards him. Yuri took a couple of hasty steps back, tripped over a log, and fell on his backside. The wolf only stopped walking once he reached Yuri's side. He sniffed the king and made a gagging sound.

"You still smell like that nasty, traitorous beast."
"What did you do to Gwendal?"

"Oh we made sure that he couldn't follow us. That was probably the most exciting fight I have had in my whole life. With that many of us attacking him, he still managed to kill one of my group and severely injure three more. I was too impressed with that to kill him. Especially since I'm sure at some point a trade could be made and he'd work for me so you could be released."

"But instead of releasing me, you'd end up killing me wouldn't you?"

"Oh we'd be sure to take you far enough away from your lover beforehand so he'd never find out about it. He'd live the rest of his life thinking that he had been a brave hero by giving up his life to let you go." The wolf barked a loud cackle. He was beside himself with glee.

Yuri stood slowly, his eyes never leaving the wolf. He started shaking. His entire body started to glow blue and his hair lengthened. He was so focused on turning into the Maou that he never noticed the two men coming up behind him. The slapped a bracelet on each of his wrists and suddenly he felt empty. He could still feel the Maou's presence, but there was no energy, no magic. Yuri tried once more to release the Maou, but there was nothing. He could almost see the Maou shake his head in disbelief. Yuri collapsed in fear. That was his last line of defense and it was suddenly gone after all these years. What had they done to him?

So I thought I could get this one posted faster, but having tests, papers, and observations due for class (not to mention finding out I'm pregnant) kinda pushed this to the back burner for a couple of weeks. I hope you all like how the story is progressing. I really appreciate the reviews I have been getting. Keep them coming!!