Lara sloshed up the bank and turned to look for her companion. She watched him climb out of the water dripping. Well, that canceled any fear of him being a vampire. As far as she knew, no vampire could stand water. He didn't stop, but kept on walking, still appearing to not care if she came with him or not. She fell into step beside him as she pulled her pistols out of her holsters and started squeezing the holsters to try and dry them off a bit. With a resigned sigh, she knew nothing was going to save them, as the leather remained damp (not wet, mind you, just damp, and she hated dampness more than wet), and she just retied them to her legs.

The area around them was quiet and peaceful. Lara was slowly beginning to adjust to it, but her nerves were still frayed. She didn't think she'd ever be truly comfortable, even in a place as beautiful as this. In her own home she never felt like she was completely safe. Granted, anyone who dared attack her there would not come out alive, but she knew her home was not her impenetrable castle. Nothing was.

Raziel suddenly stopped when he caught sight of something white poking out from behind a tree. He stepped toward it to find it to be the foot of a dead Sarafan warrior. The neck was snapped and its eyes were open in a never-ending horror. Raziel stood and looked around, knowing whose calling card it was.

"Where are you Kain?" Raziel's eyes narrowed as he spoke. Lara's hand rested an inch above her pistols. A soft malicious chuckling filled the air.

"Well, well, well," a voice almost purred in a sarcastic amusement. "I would never have thought you of it, Raziel."

Both turned to gaze at the man who leaned against a tree not ten feet away. His skin was a pale yellow-green and he wore black pants with a cloth draped over his right shoulder. It had a strange symbol on it that she was not familiar with. He turned to look at them and made a half grin, exposing long canines.

"Let me guess," Lara murmured. "A vampire?"

"Correct, woman," their new arrival responded. "And I know you for what you are, human." He turned back to Raziel, dismissing her from sight and mind. Lara closed her mouth on her growing rage.

"What are you doing here, Kain?" Raziel demanded.

"Looking for you, actually. You don't think I haven't been worried about my little Soul Reaver?" Kain's grin had changed to a mocking one. Raziel's eyes flared.

"I am not your little Soul Reaver, and do not think for an instant I have forgotten what you have done to me."

Kain's smile changed and melted off his face in an instant. "I have never forgotten, Raziel. I have been looking for you for a long while. You had seemed to vanish off the face of the planet after you killed your Sarafan brethren, and yet now you appear. Why?" Before Raziel could answer, his gaze shifted onto the woman again.

"And who is your concubine? I'd have never thought you'd had it in you."

"I am not his concubine," Lara told him in a quiet, soft voice. Quiet and soft in that she was trying to hold back her rage.

"Fine. Lover, then."

Lara's eye twitched. She grabbed the rocket launcher off her back and aimed it for him. He looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"Am I supposed to be threatened?"

A corner of her mouth twitched upward. "You should be." And she fired, sending one rocket careening over a space of ten feet. To her sheer amazement, Kain calmly reached up and caught the rocket. He looked at it a moment, made a face of disgust at it, and threw it behind his shoulder. The rocket sailed through the air where it hit trees and rocks with a loud, booming explosion. Kain stared after it for a moment, blinking. Lara stared in turn at him.

"I'm impressed," he finally stated.

"As am I," Lara replied.

The two glared daggers at one another for a long moment. Raziel had chosen not to get involved, and watched the two stare down the other. The corner of Kain's mouth twitched upward, then he smiled broadly as both stopped glaring at one another.

"I am Kain," he introduced himself. "You are, my Lady?"

"I am Lara Croft. Pleasure to meet you."

She took his out stretched hand and he brought the back of her hand up to his mouth and kissed it lightly. "The pleasure is mine, I'm sure." Raziel's eye twitched as he watched the performance. He wasn't quite sure why, but it did. Kain stood and turned to Raziel.

"What are you two doing and where are you going?"

Raziel quickly explained to him the story of the Pillars growing on other worlds and Moebius' attempts to spread his reign of influence. He added that Lara had come from the other world.

"I could have guessed that much," Kain snorted. "Hm. So you seek to get to Moebius' fortress? There is a way much faster than this. We can travel through Nupraptor's keep."

"Isn't it abandoned?" Raziel inquired.

"Not yet," was the response.