From around the corner came Bryce, Lara's pet nerd, running at top speed. Right behind him was a partially fixed Simon and on top of it was a squealingly happy little girl. Bryce slipped, landed flat on his face, and slid a few feet, nearing the stone wall. The robot pulled back to pounce forward, and Lara realized it would smash into the wall with the little girl on it.
"Rose!" she cried. Before she had even finished the exclamation, Raziel had jumped onto the heaving mechanical thing, grabbed the little girl, and jumped off as Simon smashed into the wall and fell to the floor near Bryce, twitching. Raziel stared at the machine until the squiggling girl in his arms drew his attention down to her by saying to him, "Thank you."
The girl in his arms looked small, perhaps four years old, and struck him with her appearance immediately. She had shoulder length dark brown hair with highlights of red and the top half was pulled into a braid much like Lara's. The bottom was left looking rather wind blown and tattered and much darker than the top. She gazed up at him with feral yellow-green eyes, and pointed ears poked out of her hair. The hands that clutched his were three fingered and the feet that kicked the air were cloven. He could see little fangs peeking through her lips slightly. Lara took her into her arms.
"Rose, what have I told you about playing with the machine?"
"Sorry, Mummy," the little girl apologized. "But it's fun to watch pet nerd run round!"
Lara sighed, hiding a smile behind a motherly annoyed expression. "Rose," she said sternly, "why don't you go play with your ball? Much safer."
"Ball!" The little girl squirmed out of Lara's arms, who was happy to set her down. She started to run up the stairs, the stopped and turned around.
"Mummy, who's the man?" She pointed a claw at Raziel.
"He's a friend of Mummy's, sweetheart," she explained, while thinking 'Sweetheart?! Who would have ever thought I'd be calling someone sweetheart?'
"Oh. He's has hands like me!"
"That he does, dear," Lara smiled.
Impulsively, Rose ran over to Raziel and held her arms up, silently asking to be picked up. Raziel leaned down and did so, almost in a daze. Rose hugged him, squiggled back out of his arms, and ran up stairs, shouting, "Ball!" Lara took one look at Raziel's thunderstruck expression and led him into her study. She made him sit down, then took a seat next to him. After a moment, he was finally able to talk.
"Who . . . who . . . WHAT was THAT?!"
"That was a child," Lara explained patiently.
"I know that," he retorted. "Whose?"
"Mine."
"But . . ." he repeated. "She had all the markings of a vampire, and she looked about four, which means you must have conceived . . . on . . . Nosgoth . . ."
Lara nodded silently.
"Did you sleep with any vampires there?"
She shook her head slowly and his eyes widened as it sank in.
"She's . . ." he trailed off and pointed to himself, mouthing the word 'mine?' as if he couldn't get any air through his mouth to finish the word. She nodded gravely. He looked down at his claws and clenched them.
"Mine . . ." he whispered. He shook his head. "Kain's going to have a field day."
"Why would you say that?"
"I think I just unintentionally created a new brood. A species of vampires that could breed." He blinked a few times, still trying to let the thought sink into his head. "I say again, Kain is going to have a field day."
At Lara's blinking, he sighed. "You don't understand. Vampires were the original Guardians of the Pillars of Nosogth, and for some reason or another, they all died. The Pillars chose their Guardians at birth, which is why the Pillars started to choose humans over vampires. I may have just created a brood that can retake that spot, and can breed more vampires." He let his head drift into his claws as he mumbled, "I know they told me I was to be the savior of Nosgoth, but this is most definitely not what I expected."
After a moment, he looked up at her again. "Yet I'm surprised. I told you when … that night happened, that nothing would come of it. Yet something did. I am surprised you kept it … her. Rose," he tried the name out on his tongue. "Why Rose?"
"A name that begins with 'R' in honor of her father, and she was beautiful, but deadly. So Rose it was. She had almost made the doctors have to forcibly cut open my womb and take her out, because when her time came, she hadn't wanted to leave. Thankfully, she seemed to realize if she didn't leave, she could kill her mother." She paused. "Or maybe she knew she'd want to torment Bryce too much."
Raziel paused, then asked hesitantly, "Is she the one you spoke of as being close to your heart who called Bryce your pet nerd?" To his relief, she nodded. So, there might not be another man there, then.
"Yes, she was. Refuses to call him anything else, too, that little rascal." But she smiled while she said it.
"Why didn't I meet her before? She seems . . . hyperactive enough to have been up and around when I first came."
Lara sighed and let her head rest on her hand. "She sleeps through the day and is up at night."
"Ah."
"Drives me crazy. At times she seems more vampire than human."
"How do you know she's not?"
Lara chuckled dryly. "She eats and drinks, takes regular baths, walks around in the day with no problems. She also once disappeared into the Spectral Realm when she was very little and sick. I doubt she remembers that she did or how to now. She seems to be a combination of human, vampire, and Soul Reaver."
"Alive, undead, and dead spirit wraith. What does that make her? She's not alive, as she's partially dead and undead, but she's not dead or undead, as she's partially alive."
Lara shrugged. "I have no idea."
Raziel stood and moved next to her on the loveseat she sat. He reached up and turned her ace toward him, looking into her eyes.
"You are an amazing woman, Lara Croft."
His other claw moved to the other side of her face, and he pulled her toward him and kissed her very gently. Suddenly, alarms went off throughout the house.
