URBAN NOSGOTHIC

Chapter 12

Firstly, apologies to you, bahamut…I imagine owing to FFnet's little problems lately your review was lost before it got to me! But thankyou anyway ^_^. Secondly, apologies again to all those who want longer chapters *ducks expected barrage of rotten fruit* as this one is particularly short, even by my standards - and also - this is a shameless cliffhanger. Oh yes.

I see Kain's features contort in fury for scant seconds before Raziel swings the wraith-blade around in a vicious arc, aiming to maim. Kain's expression is incandescant, not even vaguely human, and belatedly I realise that no matter what a vampire's age, the demon is always there. The cool, fine-profiled beauty common to younger vampires is only a thin paper mask for the demon that will unfold from beneath their skin as their age drifts into centuries. Age merely offers a physical show-case for the demon: it does not create it. And if this experience doesn't cure me of fancying bad boys, nothing will.

Faster than I could have believed possible, Kain is off me and flat against the back wall, hissing like a scalded cat. But he is not dead, not even seriously wounded. My eyes are dragged to the gem that he now wears on his chest like a drop of alien blood. His clothes have shifted, too - some sort of dark body-suit with armour at the shoulder and knee.

The Reaver is powerless to hurt him now, now that he is young again. Slumped across the taps on the bar, I try to raise my hand to staunch the blood-flow at my neck, but my arm feels leaden and my brain feels stuffed with cotton-wool.

Raziel, to his credit, does not seem overly surprised at this new development. At some internal command, the wraith-blade vanishes into his arm like smoke, and he takes a swipe with his claws at his sire. If magical weaponry fails you, try good old brute force and ignorance. Kain sidesteps, flicks out a leg. Raziel performs a standing leap that would have done a harrier jump-jet proud, wings catching the air, and his outflung hoof smacks Kain in the jaw.

This seems to buy him a few seconds as Kain's jawbone makes an ugly cracking noise, which the white-haired vampire folds himself around with a screech of pain and fury. I try to call to Raziel through lips that barely want to move, and manage to murmur: "…rrrrraaaaa…."

Raziel hurries to my side, his claws pressed to the gory hole in my neck. Is he checking for a pulse or trying to stop the blood from flowing?

"You're not going to die," he says brusquely, and am I imagining a hint of concern in his voice, I wonder? "Stay still."

Kain, a few drops of his own blood staining his flawless cheekbones, flips to his feet and stands poised to attack. I must have blacked out: because when awareness returns to me I am upside-down, slung over Raziel's shoulder, and my neck is just starting to really cause me pain.

"You don't dare," says Raziel's voice (with my ear pressed to his back, his voice reverberates through his body and sounds echoey. I think I'm going insane, because the sound almost makes me giggle, despite the situation). "You don't dare attack me again, master vampire or not. You know what I am, Kain. You made me."

Kain's voice sounds a long way off as he replies: "You are mad, Raziel. Your old Sarafan allegiances are poisoning your mind. Come back with me to Meridian. Together we can finish him. I would take you back, you know. I would let you rule at my side."

I feel Raziel's wing muscles shift under me: Kain's remarks are obviously putting his hackles up. Sirens wail in the streets outside. The local police must be wondering what's got into their town tonight.

I try to move my head, and my neck protests so strongly that I whimper.

"No," says Raziel, simply. "Never with you, never again." Apparently deciding he is no longer under immediate threat of attack, he shifts me into his arms so that my neck is better supported. I make several incoherent sounds as the move is effected, because the pain is really becoming unbearable now. Odd. When you watch hospital dramas, you always think that when the badly wounded are delirious with pain, they are not really aware of what else goes on around them. It's not true. Although the pain occupies my every living second like an invading army rising to the attack, I can see every detail of the club, see Kain's eyes as they glow like a deer's in the headlights of approaching patrol cars. He is still tense, still prepared to spring, but seems wary, too.

Raziel looks down at me. "Rhianna, where can I take you?" he asks. "Do you have family who can tend to you until you heal?"

Does he want the long answer or the short answer?

"…n-no….hospital…"

My voice sounds as weak as wind whistling through a crack in a door, but at least I'm still talking.

"Hospital. What is it and where?"

Things are starting to go grey again.

"Rhi, please." Raziel's voice is still calm. "If you don't stay awake…I need you to direct me…"

I am vaguely aware of Kain turning with a snarl towards the door. Cars are drawing up outside.

I need you to direct me…

Of course, I think as the comfortable greyness swims over me, and I thought Kain wasn't paying attention. Raziel and I had explained the 'game' situation to him, but he had seemed immensely non-plussed by the concept and dismissed it almost instantly. He hadn't seemed interested. But he'd understood all along. That was why Raziel was protecting me…

I think the relationship between you and her is all-important. Think about it…

Just when I'd been about to give up on it, the greyness engulfs me, and all the pain, all the knowing, is quite gone.

So just what has Rhi realised at last? Answers on a postcard, please…thankyou for all your reviews so far, and keep 'em coming :)