A/N: Thank you, everyone, for reviewing! Silmuen, Lunatic Pandora, Kaye, Tom, Shiwolf. I mean it! It really means a lot to me and it makes me feel ever so good to hear something from people. Even if it's, "This is such crap, I hate it!" So, I thank you! You're my inspiration when I'm down... and I try hard to keep writing and don't let things keep me from dreaming.

-----------------

"Let me get this correctly," Raziel mumbled, holding out his arms and staring at the janitor outfit. "I am supposed to be a servant?"

"Something like that. Basically just walk around, uh... pushing one of those cart things with the mops. And you have lots of keys. Yeah," Amanda murmured, slipping her backpack on over her shoulder. "Do you remember the directions?"

"Just keep going up the hill," Raziel said softly, rubbing his arm.

"And when you get there in the spirit world, I'll have constructed a planar portal for you just outside the wall, okay?" Amanda smiled, reaching out to tug on his hand. "I'll see you..." Her voice was soft and quiet, tinged with uncertainty. Her green-hazel eyes drooped for a moment. Something troubled her but before Raziel could ask she hurried through the front door to her ride waiting ouside.

Raziel followed, quick to change to the spectral realm. He walked among the dead, making his way across the street. Time had stopped. Vehicles stood where they drove, eternally bearing them in the direction of their destination without getting there. Raziel took the road on the sidewalk up the hill, passing souls and spirits who did not see him nor acknowledge him.

Instantantly he found the warm glow of the Planar Portal. The Reaver hummed about his arm, imbedded in the cloth in the Spirit Realm, curiously testing the fabric as though wondering of its origin.

"Trust me," Raziel hissed to the acursed blade. "Give me a few moments and you'll go back to your regular soul-feeding..."

A moment later he stood in the raining outside of the high school. He was instantly drenched by the downpour, his black hair sticking to his pasty white face. Such was the weather of this time of year. He quivered slightly, time-restarting where it had stopped when he had entered the Spectral Realm.

A moment later Amanda strode up to him, pulling him away from sight into a tall wall of bushes, shoving a ring of dozens of keys into his grasp. "Just hook those onto there," the girl hissed, before she stood up. Her bag was probably inside the building, as it was not with her when he encountered her.

Raziel sighed. He looked around for something familiar, but he couldn't find a thing. Those boxed metal things he had seen standing still and safe in the parking lots of the dirt road now moved around on the black, rain-slicked road just next to them. It was a constant stampede, like a river of technology roaring past his ear.

"It's okay," Amanda said, drawing his attention. "Just give me your hand, er... claw..." She winced before sighing. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"It was a good one," Raziel responded quickly. "Besides...you said I must see this attacker of yours. So I shall. You are my gateway to Nosgoth. I wouldn't fare well if you were suddenly murdered, would I?"

"No...I guess not..."

"Are you sure you're all right?" The vampire sunk back on his haunches, oblivious that the back of his shirt was getting a little muddy - not to mention wet.

"I don't know... It's... I feel so weird. I must be tired or something... all this magic stuff... Last week, I've never cast a spell in my life and here I am, flinging Planar Portals around like it's a frisbee marathon."

"Once, I was human," Raziel said quietly. "Then I was a vampire. And then I died." He left it at that, standing up and stretching his arms over his head. "Honestly, I think we should continue on. And after this, I promise, we'll go out and do something nice together."

Nice...? I want to please her? What am I talking about?

"Okay!" Amanda grinned, and to his alarm threw her arms around his neck and pressed close. Her breath puffed against his ear as she exhaled with a long, contented sigh. It occured to him she didn't care that it was pouring and she was wet.

His arm went around her waist uncertainly. "You're going to be late."

"I already am, but don't worry about it. They won't miss me. Let's find our modern vampire dude."

* * * * *

Basically, Amanda skipped all of her classes. She spent most of her time cavorting in the halls with Raziel, watching and waiting for their special visitor to arrive. Raziel was at first very terrified of all these teenagers. Amanda often had to hide with him in the small elevator room's closet, and wait until the bell had rung again. Still, there were students and teachers on errands, whom they tried to avoid at all costs.

One close-call involved However, it wasn't until they waited until four in the afternoon when Raziel started at the sound of a voice.

"That outfit so does not become you, stranger," the new vampire said. "Really... if you wanted us to meet... you could have sent your little pretty human to make an appointment. How good of you to wait, though, all day?"

"Where have you been?"

"Safely out of the sunlight," the vampire said, leaning against a wall, rolling his head back with a soft titter, caressing the marble. "How old this place is... I was here when they used this building as a mansion... a sort of inn for the rich..." As much as his head tilted back, the lights in the school were off already. It was difficult to see...

"We don't care about that!" Amanda snarled. "Why the hell can't you just leave us alone? I'm trying as best I can to get him home."

The stranger ignored her completely. Indeed, he seemed to ignore them both, leaning against the wall and rolling along his side so his back faced them. He covered his face with his hands, then, and sobbed.

Raziel flicked a piece of black hair from his face, a low growl of irritation promising more threats in due time. "Who are you? Answer me!"

"...Oh," the vampire whispered mournfully. "You don't remember me...? Raziel, I am your brother here too. Darius."

"All my brothers have been long dead, fledgeling," Raziel responded in contempt as he moved forward. "Enough with your lies! I've heard them from every possible mouth I could have trusted."

Darius pushed a few trailing strands of dark hair out of his face. It was a fine haircut, shoulder-length and amazingly straight. Not right for a man with such straight hair to wear it long, but somehow it made the vampire a bit more alluring.

"I don't lie," he said in all seriousness, his voice taking on a new tone. "Come... outside, into the afternoon rain. I'll show you."

Amanda looked at Raziel, but he wasn't paying attention to her at all. Darius tucked his hands into his jacket, hunching his shoulders as they passed through the broad, curving brass and white stone-carved doors etched with miniscule graffiti by pencil. They crossed the street, squeezing in between a nearly ruined, stagnant building and a cracked privacy fence of rotted wood.

Past that stood a thicket, gloomy and promising no comfort of light, warmth, or anything remotely dry. Amanda groaned under her breath and sucked in her displeasure, following the uncaring vampires who hardly seemed to mind they were getting drenched into the darkness.