Alexandria sighed and looked up at the waning moon. He was late, again.

She sat in a chair on her balcony, occasionally surveying her surroundings. She looked at the land of Nosgoth, now only a shadow of its former glory. Her heart clenched at the sight of the ruined land and she wondered how it had changed so much in so little time.

She sighed once more and even in the dim moonlight her fangs flashed white.

"Have we really done this?"She questioned herself aloud, continuing to look around at Nosgoth. "Are vampires really responsible?"

She shook her head in a pathetic attempt to rid herself of such thoughts, once again voicing the question she had been asking herself for hours. "Where the hell are you?"

A slight sound made her turn towards the left side of the balcony, she waited, tensed as though she anticipated an attack.

A pair of mischievous red eyes appeared over the side, slowly followed by a pale face and a mouth that seemed permanently twisted into a smirk.

"You're late again Gideon." Alexandria stated, hating the smirk on his face while at the same time finding it endearing.

His grin grew bigger and he chuckled, "Yeah, I know, but I have a good reason this time."

The young vampiress raised a dark eyebrow in response "And what would that excuse be?" she asked quietly.

"Raziel requested my presence." he replied, attempting to look important, puffing out his chest an gauging her reaction.

Alexandria laughed and Gideon gave her a hurt look, deflating. "Spare me Gideon, why would the Son of Kain suddenly decide he wanted a chat? And with you no less?"

Gideon gave an indignant snort and replied "Hey, Raziel and I were friends for a long time."

"About three-hundred years ago." she muttered under her breath.

He glared at her, becoming more serious, "Enough teasing Alex, what he wanted was important."

"Well what was it then?"

"The humans are becoming more aggressive, Raziel and the other Lords have decided it is time to put them back in their place. He assigned me to take a regiment of his vampire clan and take out the human settlement to the east."

His little speech said he looked down at his one person audience and was surprised to see her eyes were wide, betraying her usually cool exterior.

"Alex?"

"You-You aren't going to go are you?"

He gave her a puzzled frown "Of course I am, it's an honor to be one of Raziel's captains."

She closed her eyes, almost painfully and whispered, "I have a horrible feeling about this Gideon... I don't think you should go."

Gideon tried to give her a comforting smile, distorted because of his fangs, he was happy to know she cared enough to tell him to stay. They had been friends a long time, longer than he could remember anyway; Alexandria had always said his mind was much like that of a goldfish. He examined her form for a moment, hoping it would go undetected. Her skin was pale, a flawless ivory that contrasted sharply with her raven black hair. She was beautiful, even by his race's standards, her high cheekbones and petite figure radiated femininity, but he knew from painful previous experiences, that she was powerful when angry.

Every memory he had included her somehow, whether frowning, scolding or even occasionally, smiling at him. He wondered briefly if someday they could become more than friends and their relationship would take a less chaste turn. The look on her face just now encouraged such hopes.

"I'll be fine." he said softly, taking her clawed hand in his. "I'll come back to you, and make you feel like an idiot for thinking something was wrong.

His eat-shit-smirk was back and he dropped her hand to head over to the edge of the balcony. He turned one last time and said "I have to go tomorrow but I should be back day after. Raziel says we want to try scaring sense into them rather than having to kill them off first thing."

She nodded after him coolly, showing very little outward emotion as he disappeared into the night.

After he had gone, she remained sitting in her chair on her balcony, praying to any gods that cared to listen that she was wrong, that he'd be fine.

No gods listened to her that night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'Three days.' the thought echoed emptily in her mind, 'Three days.'

Gideon had been gone for three days and the realization had gnawed on the edge of her emotional wall, he had been gone for far too long.

She had feigned indifference when he had failed to arrive on the first day, the second day she had begun to worry in her mind, and by the third she was fretting openly.

After arguing with herself for hours she finally decided that she would just have to figure out what was going on from the only person who would know.

Raziel's clan territory was unusually silent, and the quiet sound of her taloned feet clicking on the marble seemed amplified by the simple fact that it was only sound.

The uncomfortable silence was suddenly gone as a door flung open, crashing onto the floor in splinters after being ripped from its hinges.

"I don't give a damn about your wise council!" an angry voice yelled. "I'm going to find them myself!"

A dark-haired vampire stalked out the door, followed closely by five others who seemed to be trying to talk common sense with him.

Her eyes widened as she looked more closely at the one who had ripped the door apart. His eyes were an angry green and his black hair was tied loosely in a pony-tail at the back of his head. His clawed hands clenched and unclenched as if he seemed to be resisting the temptation to kill something.

"Raziel...."the name was out of her mouth before she realized who it was.

He stopped walking and looked at her, emerald eyes narrowed as he saw her for the first time, his voice became dangerously soft, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

She felt her heart begin to pound and was sure he would be able to hear it. The others gathered around him were none other than his brothers, Melchiah, Zephon, Turel, Rahab, and Dumah. They simply seemed glad that their eldest brother's attention was currently elsewhere.

She gathered her courage and managed to bow while glaring right back at him, "I am Alexandria of Lord Raziel's clan, I have come with questions regarding the regiment of vampires that was sent to stop the chaos in the human settlement to the east." Her voice was nonchalant, she was siliently shocked at her own bravado.

His eyes softened slightly, "Gideon's friend?"

"Yes Milord." She replied in a less arrogant tone.

The assembled vampire lords became quiet and she was suddenly covered in cold sweat. 'Something is wrong!' Her mind screamed, but aloud she asked, "Has something happen to him?"

"The troops have yet to return." Zephon hissed in his usual dry tone, "We were just discussing the matter when you arrived."

Tension that was almost tangible hung in the air for a moment, then Raziel spoke, "I'm going after them, consider that the end of this discussion."

He walked off, his piece said, walking towards the eastern settlement with cold fury in his eyes.

'If the humans have done something to the troops,' Alexandria thought with rage, following closely behind the determined warrior, 'Then Raziel won't be the only one who gets to rip things apart.'