People rushed around, setting everything up. Both Raziel and Lara had decided vehemently against a church wedding, so they decided to have it outside the mansion in the garden. Lara had actually allowed herself to be put into a dress, though it was smooth, rather short, and to the point. Raziel had been dressed up in a tuxedo. He stood next to her and stretched his arms back cautiously.
"I feel like if I move, I'm going to rip this."
"Oh, don't complain," Lara sighed. "I don't particularly like being in a dress either, but my . . . relatives," she paused to shiver, "Wouldn't have had it any other way. Aunt Ethel almost had a heart attack when I refused to wear white."
Raziel shivered at the mention of the dreaded aunt's name, having met the overly gregarious woman, and then glanced Lara up and down. "She seems to have gotten you into white."
"I gave up the color to get rid of anything puffy, fluffy, or longer than my gun past my knees. I'd rather wear white, thank you."
He carefully embraced her and kissed her gently, saying, "You look very beautiful."
She smiled up at him. "And you look very handsome."
The door opened and Jials came in.
"Hey, hey, hey," he protested. "Couples to be wed are not supposed to see each other before the actual ceremony." He grabbed Raziel and dragged him out of the room.
Near the gate of the mansion, a very pissed-off Nigel kneeled. He had a rifle strung over his shoulder, but he still wasn't sure what he was going to do with it. He glowered toward the celebration. Suddenly, something slammed into his head, making him loose his grasp on reality for a long moment. He groaned and blinked into consciousness a time later to see the rifle was literally wrapped around his body and carved into the stone were the words, 'Don't even think about it.'
"Look, Kain's here," Lara murmured into Raziel's ear. Jials glared moodily nearby, watching Raziel with his arm around Lara's waist. Of course they hadn't listened to him.
Hillary suddenly appeared beside them. "Lady Croft, Lord Raziel, it is time to begin."
Raziel kissed Lara again, then walked away after Hillary.
Kain sighed deeply as he walked down to the chairs, brushing rock dust off his claws from carving in the mansion's gateway wall. He had better things to do on Nosgoth than attend a wedding on Earth, but it was Raziel's. He grabbed a chair in front of the last row and flipped to so the side of it faced him. He then sat down in on of the chairs in the last row and put his feet up on the chair before him he had turned for this specific purpose. Around him, humans turned and glared at him. He was tempted to scare them into submissiveness, but decided it would interrupt the ceremony, so he staunchly ignored them.
Suddenly, from up front, a little girl of five climbed out of her chair, raced down the aisle to where he sat, and promptly climbed into his lap. Kain narrowed his eyes as he looked down at her. She had dark hair, and short of slightly off-colored eyes, looked and smelled human. So, this human whelp would dare to even approach him? Humans on Nosgoth knew far better than that.
"Ball!" She held up a little round object to him. One of Kain's eye ridges rose in disgust, which quickly lowered to annoyance as she threw the ball lightly against his face. It was a small ping-pong ball and hurt nothing more than his pride. He pondered what to do with the little upstart.
'Kill her?' He paused. 'No, too many people around. Throw her as far away from my person as possible . . . No, same problem.'
So he decided to do precisely what he did best; he ignored her. The little girl, seeing the resistance and taking it as a challenge, began throwing the ball at his face again. Eventually, it bounced away. She made a sad noise, climbed off his lap, and ran after it. After a moment, she came back, climbed into his lap again, and threw her new ball at him. This one happened to be a tennis ball. Kain focused intently on the proceedings, shutting her out so strongly that he didn't notice that ball roll away, or her go get another ball.
She came back with a baseball. The same process repeated again and again, continuing with a softball, a large rubber ball, a basketball, and a soccer ball. Still Kain ignored her. But then she came back with a bowling ball. She pulled back, then threw it at his face where it made a resounding CLANG!
"AH!" Kain raised a claw to his face where the ball had hit it and looked down to see she was pulling back to throw a medicine ball at him. He hastily caught it and looked down at her in interest and a touch of confusion. He tossed the ball back to her and watched as she caught it. She smiled widely at having his attention and threw it back. He sent it back to her. Shortly, the two were locked in a high-speed throwing game. Finally, he decided he'd had enough and held a hand up to indicate for her to stop. The girl, being only five years old, didn't understand the gesture and threw it again, where it connected with his face. He shook his head and growled under his breath, no longer caring there were other humans here to watch him kill her as his talons moved toward her in anger.
At the same moment, the wedding had finally ended and as Lara and Raziel walked by, Lara leaned down and picked up the little girl.
"Come along, Rose."
Kain sat a long moment, blinking, then stared after where Lara, Raziel and this . . . 'Rose' had left.
The wedding was over and everyone was settling down to eat and talk. Good luck and wedding presents were being given to the newly weds and they had finally pulled away from it all to watch their guests. Jials stood watching them and smiled.
"They make quite a good couple," he said to no one in particular.
"That they do," a voice answered him. He jumped in surprise, then turned to see a tall, yellow-green skinned being with yellow eyes and long white hair. Jials took in the three clawed hands and cloven feet and realized he was a Nosgothian vampire of some kind.
"I don't believe I've met you," Jials stated.
"I'm sure you haven't," he responded. "I'm rather hard to forget." He paused, glanced around, and grinned exposing his fangs. "You know, I do believe I'm relatively hungry."
Jials eyed him worriedly, then sidled away a step. The vampire rubbed his chin as he mused aloud, "Perhaps a scholar of some kind or another would do nicely . . ."
Lara and Raziel were walking toward the two, and Jials' beat a hasty retreat to hide behind Lara saying, "You handle him. He scares me."
She glanced back at him, remarking, "Whatever happened to men being strong and brave?"
"Whatever happened to women being sweet and meek?" he retorted.
"Mummy?" a voice asked near Lara's feet. Lara leaned down and picked up Rose, balancing Rose on her hip and walked to Kain.
"Stop scaring the occultist," she reprimanded him. Kain smirked slightly and Jials quickly moved away.
"But it's so much fun."
"Oh, Lara!" Lara winced at the voice, knowing immediately who it was. Those voices belonged to her "relatives," one Aunt Ethel and Uncle Edmund. She found them utterly revolting; Aunt Ethel was the epitome of children's fear of an aunt who pinches cheeks constantly. Uncle Edmund wasn't much better. Rose knew who they were as well, and she quickly hid her face in Lara's arm. When her relatives had gotten to them, Lara gently excused herself saying she had to feed Rose. As she gratefully walked away, she realized Raziel hadn't even been there that long once he heard them coming. The powerful and immortal Soul Reaver, who'd faced even the fiercest of demons was as happy to avoid her relatives as Lara was.
"Oh!" Aunt Ethel turned her eyes to Kain, who still stood nearby, looking at them blankly. "And you might be?"
"Kain."
"Ah, Mr. . . Kain. And may we inquire as to what your relation to the newly weds is?"
Kain was torn between being disgusted and amused by the mortals, so he decided to give them an answer they'd be comfortable with.
"I am Raziel's . . . father." It wasn't particularly true in vampire terms, but these humans would be happy with the answer.
"Oh, are you? You must be very proud to be a grandfather."
Kain blinked at them a moment, slightly confused.
"Didn't you know?" Uncle Edmund asked. "Rose is Raziel's and Lara's daughter."
"Ah, is that what you were referring to." Inwardly, Kain's eye twitched. He realized he should have come to the conclusion, but Lara did seem like the type to sleep with a male who could produce such a child, and he had never for a moment expected Lara to become pregnant after sleeping with Raziel. It shouldn't have happened, and definitely shouldn't have been possible.
"Mr. Kain, what is it that you do?"
He crossed his arms over his chest and answered smoothly, "I rule over hundreds of humans and vampires with an iron fist and wage war against an ancient race of demons."
Aunt Ethel and Uncle Edmund both laughed, obviously enjoying what they thought was a joke. Kain laughed along with them, all the while thinking, 'You have no idea.'
"No, no, no, but really, what do you do?"
"I kill people with impunity."
Aunt Ethel and Uncle Edmund started to laugh, then stopped, seeing Kain watching them with a slight smirk, a malicious glint in his eyes, and a dead serious expression. Lara, who had been watching this whole affair, decided it was time to intervene. She went to speak to Kain, allowing the two to escape. After all, Lara would rather deal with Kain over the two any day. Aunt Ethel and Uncle Edmund, safely away from Lara's crazy father-in-law, managed to finally corner the groom.
"Well, Raziel?" Uncle Edmund inquired. "Now that you're married to Lara, what do you plan on doing in the future."
Raziel winced, glancing around for an escape route, but answered, "I plan on helping Lara on her exploits."
"Ah." The two exchanged a worried look. They both frowned on Lara's little trips that she took. Aunt Ethel went to ask him another a question, but the ringing of a fork being tapped on a glass drew their attention to Jials standing at the head table.
"I believe it's about time for the newly weds to have their first dance."
Raziel gratefully moved out into the center of the room and extended his arm toward Lara. She walked to him and took his arm. He turned her into his embrace as the music started up, and both began to step in time to each other, just allowing themselves to look in the other's eyes.
"I love you," he murmured quietly to her.
"I love you, too," she responded. He leaned down and kissed her gently.
Kain stood to the side slightly away from the mortals, but watched quietly. Suddenly, his head jerked up and his eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right . . . There was some form a danger nearby . . .
What he didn't see was a small little girl slowly sneaking up behind him. She suddenly lunged forward and glomped onto his leg, squeezing it in a tight hug.
"AGH!" He glared down in surprise and anger at the little parasite that had attached itself to his leg. He winced in pain as she hugged tighter, and he quickly realized she would have broken a normal human's leg long ago.
"Get off!" he roared down at her. Rose just hung on. Everyone had stopped and was watching Kain trying to pry the little girl off his leg. Even Lara and Raziel had taken an interest. They had been afraid for Rose's sake for about thirty seconds until they realized that with all of Kain's stamping to get her off, Rose was having fun.
After about five minutes, Kain finally shot off in the dark, pointing to a corner, saying, "Look! A ball!"
"OOO!" Rose immediately detached herself from his leg and raced to where he pointed, looking around. "Where? Wherewherewherewhere?"
Kain gratefully massaged feeling back into his leg and hastily pulled back into the shadows before Rose could find him again.
The rest of the dancing came and went, and finally people started saying good-bye and leaving. Lara was happy to see her relatives go, but she kept her face straight as she wished them good-bye. Finally, it came down to a few people left, including Jials and Kain. Kain walked to the two.
"I wasn't able to give you two your gift before because of all the normal mortals around, but now I am free to."
He handed them a three-foot by two-foot black box. Raziel held it, allowing Lara to open in. Inside on cloth that resembled silk sat a large stained glass image of Raziel and Lara dressed in a Nosgothic style of dress, staring into each other's eyes, obviously deeply in love. Next to it was a card with, "Best wishes." Underneath it was an elegant K and beside it a J.
"I'd say I made it, but that would be a lie," Kain grinned.
"Who did?" Raziel asked.
"I did," a heavily accented voice stated. Raziel looked up in shock as a tall male walked around the corner toward them. Lara's eyes widened at the sight of him. He was well built and wore a long white robe with black and gold trim over black pants. His skin was a light blue, and hair black, but what drew her attention most were the pair of gigantic black wings coming off his back.
"Janos . . ." Raziel breathed. Janos smiled gently down at his successor as Guardian of the Reaver. Vorador walked out after Janos and stood next to him.
"Killing Moebius has had strange repercussions on Nosgoth, as well, you know."
"Lara," Kain told her, "if you want to meet someone who more truly fits the aspect of Raziel's father, this is he."
Janos turned his yellow eyes to here. "Ah, you must be the famous Lara Croft."
"And you must be Janos Audron."
Janos took her hand and kissed it. "That I am, my Lady."
Lara found herself staring in wonder at the ancient vampire. He seemed so at contrast to all the other vampires she had met so far. She found that he even reminded her of her father with his mentor-like, warm manner. She could see instantly why people would immediately trust him.
"You realize as honored as I am to have you here, the majority of the people still here are human, and I don't know how'd they'd react to a blue-skinned, winged individual in their midst."
Janos nodded his understanding as Kain calmly said, "You needn't worry. We planned for that problem already. Janos has a sort of form-changing spell about his person."
Lara blinked at him. "You still seem very vampiric to me."
"That's because you are a Guardian. You are no longer truly mortal. Any of these normal humans, however will see me as merely a nameless human in their midst."
As if to affirm his statement, Jials walked over, nodding to Lara as he told her, "I think I'll be heading back now." He glanced nervously at Vorador and moved a step away from him. "So, I will say my adieus now. Good-bye, Lara, Raziel, Scary One," he added, looking at Kain. He nodded to Janos and walked away. Lara blinked, knowing that Jials must not have seen anything, as he would have been all over Janos asking questions. Perhaps magic did have its uses . . .
"And," Kain began, "As heartwarming as— AH!" His head abruptly craned back at an awkward angel. The vampires, Soul Reaver, and Tomb Raider blinked at him strangely a moment before moving around him to see what was happening. Hanging onto his hair was Rose, giggling. Vorador and Janos started chuckling.
"Oh yes, enjoy this. It wouldn't be so amusing if it was happening to you," Kain growled.
Vorador ran a claw over his bald head. "No worries here."
Janos indicated his short hair. "She'd be hard-pressed."
As if provoking fate, Rose let go of Kain's hair, stared at Janos a minute, than stated, "Pretty wings!" She immediately ran toward him while Vorador laughed openly. Janos began turning in a slow circle while Rose chased one of his wing tips. After a moment, he leaned down and picked her up. She moved in his grasp so she could pet his wings, saying, "Pretty wings."
"You're quite lucky," Lara stated. "At least she isn't pulling out your feathers."
"She doesn't want to hurt me," he responded. Rose promptly leaned over and plucked out one of his feathers.
"Ouch."
Lara shook her head. "That's one thing you have to understand about Rose." Janos handed Rose to Lara as she continued, "For all her five years, she sometimes acts very much like a malevolent vampire. She has a streak for the sadistic. She just manages to hide it being a very manipulative exterior."
Rose snuggled against Lara and, still petting the feather she held, kissed her cheek. Lara's eye twitched as she fought to suppress matronly urges to cuddle over the child. She satisfied herself with holding Rose close. She wouldn't act like a cooing mother in front of all these men.
"We really should be going, sire," Vorador commented from next to him. Janos nodded once in consideration.
"I suppose you are correct. Kain? Will you be joining us?"
"Of course."
"You'd better say good-bye to Grandfather Kain," Lara told Rose. Kain snorted.
"I am hardly her grandfather. If someone needs to be her grandfather, I appoint Janos to the position."
"Yes," Raziel added. "Kain's more like the uncle no one ever speaks of."
"Fine then," Lara stated in a way to end all argument. "Uncle Kain it is."
"Uncle Kain!" Rose held her arms out for a good-bye hug. Kain's eyes narrowed in contempt and he turned to walk away. Her sniffling stopped him and he turned to see little tears sneaking out of her eyes. He sighed in defeat, walked over to her, and gave her a hug. She immediately brightened up. Kain walked away shaking his head saying, "She definitely has a vampire's manipulation in there somewhere."
Raziel and Lara watched Janos, Vorador, and Kain teleport back to the Pillars. Rose waved them good-bye, appearing not in the least effected by the fact they had just disappeared.
Lara sighed happily from where she lay against Raziel's chest. It was about a week after the wedding and the two lay together entangled in the sheets and each other's arms. She sat up and looked down at Raziel.
"You know, we still need to take our honeymoon."
"And where would we go?" he asked lazily, not unhappy with the idea, but merely curious.
"How about around the world just moving from one place to another until we find somewhere we'd like to stay for a while?"
His eyes closed as he thought about it. After a moment, he nodded. "That would be fun, yes. But that leaves us with the problem of who's going to watch Rose while we're gone? Certainly not a normal baby-sitter."
"I have that all figured out."
Kain sat down on the couch across from them.
"Well, your letter said it was urgent. What is it that you need so badly?"
"We haven't yet gotten an opportunity to take our honeymoon and get away from England yet," Lara began.
"Yes, so?"
"We don't want to take Rose with us, so we need for someone to baby-sit her."
Kain's eyes narrowed as he realized where this was going. He stood, shaking his head firmly.
"No." He turned and started walking toward the door. Lara picked up Rose.
"Sorry, Rose, but it seems Uncle Kain doesn't want to stay here. He's going to leave now."
"No Uncle Kain?" Rose looked after Kain and when she saw he was indeed leaving, she started crying. Kain heard the sound and clenched his talons into a fist, but kept moving. He got to the door, began to walk out of it, and found his feet turning back and taking him to Rose. He picked her up out of Lara's arms and cuddled over her, glaring at Raziel and Lara who were smiling.
"I truly hate you, you realize."
"We know."
An hour later, Raziel and Lara had left and Rose had been put to bed to sleep. Kain sat down in a chair, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples. How had he let them talk him into doing this? Ah yes, they had cheated. Why did a single little girl crying bother him in the slightest? He had slaughtered thousands without a second thought, but this girl brought him to his knees with her crying. Why?
'Oh well,' he sighed mentally to himself. 'At least children sleep most of the time. I should get at least some piece and quiet.'
Then, from behind him, he heard, "Ball!"
End~
