The war lasted three days and three nights, with my warriors and I heading up the battle. The Serafan Sorcerer Priests stayed behind ever wasting their breaths on prayers to their gods.

Every night my troops grew weaker and Vorador created new fledglings to die for him. At one point, he'd taken an entire village into his fold. On the last day, I called upon my brothers to help me…

"I worry about you." Gathonel said quietly as the blurry image of my long dead brother faded completely. "Why do you kill for him?"

I said nothing to this. I had no other answer other than I liked to. Perhaps in the end, that was what had damned me in my human life. Mayhap that's what had driven Rahab to fish my soul from the underworld and breathe vampiric life into me. My bloodlust intrigued so many it seemed.

"Do you remember your human life, Gathonel?" I questioned. Looking at him I wondered what kind of man he had been.

"Not really. Sometimes I get a dream or a vision, but nothing I can quite get a grip on." He answered scratching at his "skin". "What about you?" His woeful gaze made me wonder if I should tell him what I knew. Nevertheless I could not risk Kain finding out who I was and what I had once been. I had a feeling that would not sit well with him at all. But, I had to wonder if possibly Kain knew the truth already. I wondered if he knew which of his blasphemous Lieutenants was my brother. Would the very master I served turn out to be the man I had been seeking since my resurrection?

"Nothing." I told him finally. "I've had dreams like yourself but nothing that tells me about my former self." I lied. A boldfaced one at that.

"Then why did you ask that?" Gathonel was looking around the stone room, his wrinkled fingers drawing thin circles along the wall.

He did not see my infuriated glare. "An innocent question, ugly one. Something to help pass the time."

"Time?" A voice not belonging to my offensive companion crooned. "Your time runs short." I closed my eyes and once again remembered…

I stood in the chamber of the Oracle, listening as he told the Serafan Sorcerer Priests of their fate. He looked at each of them in turn, his white eyes blazing impossibly with the image of fire. "The vampires have all but been destroyed and that my dear Serafan shall be your down fall. Malek alone will survive this onslaught, only to pay for his vanity later…yes later." Angrily, I moved forward. I was tired of this old man pronouncing doom. His hand came up and his words stopped me cold. "Ovelin shall be destroyed by his own anger and greed. His actions shall set in motion the events that will loose a monster the likes of which Nosgoth has never seen." My fingers grasped the Old Man's wrist of their own accord and I flung him across the room. He sat staring at me cackling inanely.

"Are you going to believe this nonsense? He speaks of useless babble and witchery that will never win our battle." I raged. "Every day Vorador creates more of his kind. The filthy beasts rise up anew each night and the seven of you waste time talking to a fool." I found it strange that I could focus on no face but Malek's.

"It is not a waste of time, Ovelin. The Oracle knows all." Malek shouted at me, looking back at the Old Man who still sat where he'd landed. Smoothing his garments, the Oracle looked very uninterested in what was transpiring.

"Does he?" I shouted back. "In that case, if you are to die anyway, then die honorably in battle, not listening to this fool." Malek threw up frustrated hands while the rest of the Serafan looked on. Verbal confrontations had become somewhat common placed between Malek and I. "The vampires grow in number, not diminish." I threw my silver helmet at the Old Man. "Stay here and pray to your gods or perhaps play a rousing game of riddles with the Old Man. But as for me and mine, we shall rid this world of the vampire scourge with or without any of you." I stormed towards the door with Malek shouting after me.

Nevertheless it was the Oracle's cold tone that stopped me a second time. "Death, Ovelin. Purged by fire…"

Gathonel slapped me hard. "Ovelin! Where are you?" Once again the Serafan faded away from me.

"How dare you strike me." I roared indignantly. I grabbed the ugly fledgling and tossed him away from me. He landed half in the open doorway where the sun was filtering in predominately. "You touch me again, creature, and you will not like what I do with your flaming carcass." Gathonel sniffled, but I stood my ground. "I should have let those humans kill you."