A/N: Uh…yeah. I was playing Soul Reaver the other day.
IMPORTANT: Story takes place pre-soul reaver, when Raziel still ranks as Kain's first in command. YES, I have already said it. This story contains a SLASH theme. Which means male/male relations. Don't read it if you don't like that kind of thing. Please. Thank you. Buh-bye.
…
I could see cleary what this pitiable wretch was doing…Clapped up in scores of heavy armor and armed with a single broadsword, I could not say for certain what this man hoped to accomplish. All that was certain was that he was fool-headed, brash and adolescent, acting alone even. He moved aimlessly, though with great purpose behind his determined eyes, edging closer along the stone wall to my own hallow sanctum. It seemed a waste of time to even bother with him, but he was a tresspasser, and intruder none the less. And what's more, he was Serafan.
Now what did suprise me was that the beast chose entry through the back corners of my territory, obviously in an attempt to infiltrate us unnoticed. This in and of itself was not strange, but he insisted on taking the longest route because, I am assuming, it was lit with no torch. The impudent fool…so inexpreinced that he thinks a vampire has a lesser chance of spotting him in the darkness. But it was no matter. Whether spy or headstrong belligerant, he had sealed his fate.
It took me one moment to circle him, two to be at his side and ensnare my arm around his shoulers before I clamped one clawed hand down over his mouth. Before the terrified creature had time to react, I turned his head away and sank my teeth into his windpipe. A gurgle, a choke, and a desperate sob trickled from the boy as his life escaped out his wound and onto my waiting tongue. His young life was wasted to his people… How tragic.
"Keeping maintenance, as always I see." Came a voice that I knew all too well.
I dropped the lifeless body to my feet and raised my head, feeling a hot stream of blood wash down my lips. Kain. By now I should not be so surprised when he appeared like this without notice. He stood, arms crossed and leaning against the wall opposite this one, a rather amused expression as his eyes surveyed my kill. I said nothing, for I found little to say to him these days that was not countered off with a condecending chuckle and dissmisal. I would let him speak, if he was so inclined.
"Serafan rodents." He sputtered, his lips curling past his familiar fangs in disgust. "You let that one get close, wouldn't you say?"
"Have you come just to belittle me, Kain?" I said tiredly. "Or have you a thought with more importance after all?" too often did he come around my grounds to repremand a situation that I had so dealt with poorly, as he said.
"You did not kill him quickly enough." A ghastly smirk tore across his lips as he stood straight and took a few steps into the showering moonlight.
"The end result is inexorably the same, is it not?" I narrowed my eyes as he approached me further, studying me with his piercing eyes from only a few feet away.
"Raziel. You will grow to understand that this is not a world of accomplishment, but rather of efficiency." He purred deviously, rubbing a rust-colored claw against his chin.
"So I suppose this night is not so different from others." I responded, unphased. "You're here only to chastise me."
And there it was, as I had expected. Kain's arrogant chuckle, rocking his chest slightly, hiding behind his teeth some secret thought that bore the aura of 'if only you knew'. It angered me that indeed I did not. "You disappoint me."
"Oh?" I drawled with a sneer.
"It is my duty to ensure the well-being of my lieutenants' clans. Your other brethren have no quarrel with me when I happen to glance upon them in their realms." He leaned his head to the side with a glower that slightly resembled irritance. "You, however, are so defiant."
"I manage this place as well as them all. Your concern is misdirected." I shook my head and watched him with mild distrust.
"My concern is not of your house and fledglings, Raziel." He said with a tamed snarl. "It is of your attitude in regard to my authority…" he took some time to look at the corpse between us before his eyes snapped back onto me. "It grows, day by day. I feel your hot gaze upon me, though where once it was reverant, now does it burn with resentment. It seems to me that you forget your place, every now and then."
I clenched a fist to my heart and growled at his remark. Kain would not beat me into a bow just yet. "If my place is your right hand, the fault is your own if you cannot control it."
"Don't let your insolence get the better of you." Kain hissed, anger sparking in his eyes at this statement. "If one is ignorant-" at this he threw his hand in a gesture to the dead human on the earth below, "he falls victim to his own confidence. Pride is damning."
Such irony that Kain should speak of overconfidence and arrogance! I could not help but let a laugh catch in my throat, and to my delight, for once, Kain did not understand. The all-knowing and heavenly ordained Kain could not guess the reason for my mirth, and when he realized this, it infuriated him.
"Stupid child!" he roared, and I felt suddenly the three rusted claws center into my cloak and my shoulders crack against the stone of the wall behind me. I already felt the blood trickling out of the back of my head where obviously I had collided with the wall in a fit of my master's fury. His fist was still curled in my dressings and his other hand was against the wall beside me, trapping one of my arms at my side as he bore his teeth in my face. "I am kind to give you such fair warning that your skills need improvement! It is most gracious of me that I should even tolerate such inadequacy, let alone such insubordination! And you, you pathetic worm, you laugh at me as though I am some comical doting father!"
I could feel Kain's anger rising, I could feel his patience wearing. Despite my uneasiness, I closed my eyes against the climbing dizziness and reopened them to stare into his rebelliously. He will not beat me to my knees. I am no one's whore assasin to be tossed aside and used as a tool of war, and until he understood this, we would be always at odds with one another. However I could not bring my voice to rise. The blow I had suffered to my head made things unclear, but I held a somewhat dizzy gaze of anger and betrayal. I could not say for certain what I had been expecting in that moment, or what I had even wished for. Perhaps I had expected him to toss me to the earth and leave me there, saving this fight for another day. Perhaps I expected his teeth at my throat. Or perhaps I had even expected him to draw the reaver itself and show me what he thought of my disobedience. Whatever the case, I had been wrong. He did none of these things.
Kain stood for a while, calculating me. His face was almost…confused. And dare I say, remorsed. Slowly I felt the clawed hand at my side lift and raise towards me. I cringed as it neared my face, thinking it would strike me, but instead it gently touched the side of my head where small streaks of blood were falling. The touch was soft, uncallous, and in my discomfort, I found myself wishing that he had struck me. His expression was serene, as placid as I had ever seen him before. He looked to the droplets of blood on his claw tips and returned his quizzical stare to my face.
I think I moved to say something, but I could not. For once I was at a loss for what to say to him. Always had I gotten away with these snide remarks and suddle disagreements, but now Kain was offering nothing to resist. If I could not rail against him…what could I do? He at last spoke, but his tone was…so different than it had been moments prior. "You are to be more careful, Raziel…" he said solemnly as he drew the hand down onto my shoulder. "Less…" his eyes travelled to the stream of blood dripping down my chin from the freshly killed intruder. "…sloppy." Slowly he came closer to me.
I did not understand his way. I froze up, unpredictably. He pushed his tongue along my lower lip slowly, tasting the blood that filled my veins for himself and once more…cleansing an area that I had been less than efficient in…I was inlcined to push, to pull away, to stop him from preforming this gruesome kiss, but in all of Kain's unbridaled power with the reaver, his command of the vampire race, his ability to vanquish armies and destroy lives with a single lifting of his hand…it was this action that terrified me the most. It was a part of Kain that, by legend and law I am sure, should not have been. But he did not stop there. His grip on my cloak loosened and his weight shifted, giving me the divine opportunity to flee from this, but I could not bring myself to move in all of my dumbstruck horror.
Slowly his taste turned from blood to…something else…I could not be sure what. All I knew was that his mouth had somehow moved over mine, and his tongue was sliding down to touch my own. I began to shake…what would come of this? Oh, by whatever god overwatches us, I wanted this to stop…I was frightened. In the ruler and ruthless killer that he was, I had never feard him more than I did now. Why was he doing this? Let him curse me, strike me, scorn me, but not this…I could not cope with this, I did not recognize this.
"My lord!" a frantic voice burst from the shadows.
Kain immediately stumbled back from me as though I had hit him square in the jaw, his head whipping around to see the figure materialize from the shadows. I drew my arms across my chest, each hand clutching its opposite shoulder as I surpressed a shiver.
"Oh my lord! My liege!" it was a fledgling from my own family, shrieking and panicking like a sick dog as he ran to us with eyes wide and gaze flashing between the two of us. "The Serafan! At the gates!" he cried terribly.
"Calm yourself…" I muttered. So the futile boy was the first of an onlsaught. No matter… "Go…warn the others…tell them to rally. I want the eldest in the front ranks."
"Yes of course!" he wailed, spinning around and dashing away, leaving Kain and I alone once more…
He was still stunned. His eyes came fixed upon me again, wide and completely un-Kain like. So many emotions crossed his face that I had not seen before as he looked upon me. Shock, confusion, regret possbily. All focused onto me, feeling foolish with a shaky stance like some beaten child as I mirrored his expression. He was panting as he stuttered for a moment, another thing I had never seen him do when his speech was normally so elegant. "Raziel…" he breathed, blinking repeatedly. "I…I am sorry…"
I think there was no falter in my position as I pushed my body harder into the wall, further away from him. What great transgression could he have made that the great and arrogant Kain would apologize so sincerely to me…? Still I could not move from this spot.
He lifted his hand, almost as if desperate to say more before he closed his eyes painfully and turned his head away, letting it drop. "Let us…make haste. I will help you defend your borders…"
"There is no…" need…I found that I could not protest. Let him do what he will…
Kain quickly turned and stormed away after the path that the young fledgling had left, red cloak trailing behind him and the reaver glinting in the moon's sallow light.
For a moment…-and for only a moment, I swear to-…I was certain that he had beaten me…
But still I drew my sword, and followed.
End