Lara woke slowly, the light of the sun glinting down in her face. She yawned and blinked, surprised to see stone above her. She must be in a tomb, but where? India again? Or South America? It wasn't until she sat up and found she wasn't wearing anything and she saw Raziel that everything came crashing back to her. Including last night.
'Damn,' she thought, yawning. 'He is an incredibly good lover.'
"Good morning, Lara," Raziel greeted her.
"Good morning," she responded. She stood and inspected the damage to her clothes from last night.
"Not modest, are you?"
"You've seen me not wearing anything. It's not really a big deal. Besides, I wouldn't think you'd be complaining."
"Oh, I'm not," he hastily amended. "Just stating a fact."
She grinned and pulled on her shorts, then frowned at the bra. It was gone beyond the point of no return. Raziel's claw marks were evident at the clasp. Men. They had no patience. She dug through her bag until she found her spare, snapped it on in the back, and turned to see Raziel staring interestedly at it.
"Hm."
"Studying it in order to learn how to get it off better?"
He shook his head. "Just seeing if the other way was easier. It's not. I like my way better."
Lara laughed as she pulled on her top. She felt arms snake around her waist and turned to look up into Raziel's face. He hadn't yet put the tabard back on. She smiled up at him, then mentally thwapped herself.
'A fling,' she reminded herself. 'A one-night fling. I don't care for him. Get over it.'
Her thoughts were interjected as he leaned down and kissed her. The kiss was everything the body promised: powerful, strong, stable, and exotic. She tried to stop from giving into him as much as she did, but her willpower just wasn't up to Raziel. In fact, as far as Lara was concerned, when he kissed her, she didn't know what the word 'willpower' meant.
"Did I miss something?" a voice interrupted them. Both turned to gaze at Kain who was calmly leaning against one of the pillars.
"Oh goody," Lara grumbled sarcastically. "You're back."
"Hm. Most people don't like the fact I'm back. They try to get rid of me as soon as possible."—Lara's eye twitched—"Now, what did happen?"
Lara turned to packing as Raziel moved to look at the new obstacle blocking their path. Kain looked between them and hid a grin. Oh, good. Things were going better than planned. His smile faded, though, as he watched the two's actions.
'Well, they apparently decided that it wasn't anything serious. She's not going to be staying. Pity. They would have made an interesting couple.' A corner of his mouth twitched upward. 'And she would have made an interesting vampire. Oh well. Her loss.'
Raziel studied the door and a grimace touched his lips. Another door that needed a specific type of Reaver to unlock. This one needed the Light Reaver. He glanced around. He didn't see any Light forges, and he hadn't noticed any on the way in. He guessed that he was going to have to slip into the Spectral Realm to find out what was going on. Not saying anything to his companions, he moved into the spirit realm and glanced around. As was usual, the basic scenery was the same (short of having a blue tint to everything), but there were a few things different. For one, the wall a few feet of the door buckled upward, revealing a passageway. He quickly dispatched an overly curious Sluagh and continued into the end of the hallway which ended up being a large room. He returned to the normal realm and stepped forward to examine the wall. It looked relatively like a door set into the stone, the hinges hidden just like the first door that had stopped them from entering the building. Etched in the door was a triangle placed upon an intricately designed circle. In the center of the triangle was an eye. Where the pupil would be was a circular hole with little metal pieces that stuck out at odd angles inside it. Raziel stepped up to it and gazed down at it. It kind of looked like the inside of a lock. He glanced at his three-clawed hands and shook his head slightly. His fingers were not nimble enough for this kind of thing. He slipped back into the Spectral Realm and headed back to the others.
"Lara, I'm going to need you for a moment."
Lara nodded and stepped over to him. "What do you need? And where is this that you need my help?"
Inwardly, Raziel smiled. He set a hand on her shoulder and slipped back into the spirit realm, bringing Lara with him.
"Good God!" Lara cried, instinctively grabbing onto his claw in surprise. Looking around at the blue tinged world around her, Lara decided she was never going to let him do that again.
"You ass!" She pulled back and punched him in the shoulder. He didn't even seem to notice. A curious Sluagh popped out from the hallway that Lara could have sworn wasn't there in the normal realm. The green creature stood bipedal, again with two toed feet and three clawed hands. Its beady yellow-green eyes saw the form of Lara and the life and energy her soul promised. Lara, on the other hand, didn't like the thing coming slowly toward her. It had that "I'm hungry, let me eat you" look. She knew that look. She had been given it plenty of times. She reached for her pistol and shot the thing. To her surprise, the bullet left the gun with a muffled explosion and almost instantly seemed like it hit resistance and began to slow immensely. She watched in amazement as the bullet slowed and finally stopped only a few feet from her. The Sluagh started running toward her.
"Bugger."
Raziel moved in front of her, brandishing the Soul Reaver. The spirit eater moved back hastily, not liking the situation. It started to circle the two. It sensed the presence of a living soul, but this soul wraith that wielded a strange weapon was keeping it from that soul. It shot forward to attack the competition. As one, Lara shot once more and Raziel moved to a guard position. Again, the bullet slowed and moved through the Sluagh as if it wasn't there. It didn't appear on the other side, having slowed to a stop inside of where the Sluagh's body should have been. If the creature had been capable of complex emotions, it would have been pleased. The living soul's weapons were not effective against it. Soon it would have its meal.
It pulled back to lunge forward again, but found a shocking problem; it couldn't move. Lara raised an eyebrow and Raziel eyed the thing warily. Then Lara smirked.
"This is the . . . Spectral Realm as you called it earlier before, right?"
"Correct."
"And you also said that this realm lies next to and intersects our own. Which means some things effect this realm and some do not. I would surmise, then, that the bullets were slowed because they are still on the normal plane of existence, but still retained a connection here because they were fired here. As such, anything that had a bullet in it would be trapped in one spot because the bullet cannot be manipulated here."
Raziel looked down at Lara, an eyebrow raised. "You keep turning around and surprising me, human."
"Like to keep you on your toes. Now, may I see what it is that you brought me here to?"
He led her into the other room and took her back to the normal realm. Lara gazed at the triangle etched into the stone for a long moment before breathing, "The All-Seeing Eye." She moved up to the pupil and looked in.
"A lock? Hm . . ." She reached in and carefully slid the inside metal pieces around, wary of setting off any traps. Her efforts were finally rewarded with a satisfying CLICK as the door unlocked and slid back and to the side. Inside was a small room with only two things of note: a basin that streamed a ray of bright yellow out of the top, and a boulder that Lara recognized could be moved. Raziel moved up to the basin and bathed the Reaver in the light, imbuing it with the elemental power of Light. Lara headed over to the block and started to push it out. She strained her weight against it and the block moved a millimeter. She pushed again and it stuck solid.
"Uh, Raziel? A little help, please?"
"Lara, do you remember when you first met me?" he inquired, ignoring her request. She sighed, dropped her hands, and turned to look at him.
"Yes. Why?"
"Do you remember the mural you said was cute?"
" . . ." She fidgeted slightly. "Yes, I remember. And I know who it was now."
Raziel smirked partially. "Do you really find me cute?"
Lara looked up at him and gave him a singsong 'I'm not gonna tell you' look. He chuckled softly. He stepped over to where she was standing and slammed his claws into the block. He shoved it out and to the side while Lara glowered at him.
"You're still a show-off."
Raziel pulled the tabard down and smirked at her.