Author's Notes: This is going to be a funky chapter. All the ideas I had for chapter 12 are going to end up spread out over the course of two more chapters, I think. But it'll keep you readers intensely interested, I hope! (PS: I Can't believe I wrote DORIAN instead of Darius! That was rather stupid of me... but anyway, I fixed that mistake so you don't get awfully confused.)
Raziel: Why do I have to have another dream about Kain? Whines
Me: You shush. You know you like it!
Raziel: mumbles
Kain: Sweatdrop ...Uhh...
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Amanda watched Raziel's face as he looked out the passenger side. They both opted to sit in the back together, while Darius calmly directed them to Plattsburgh. It was a long distance, but they would make it in time before the terrible sunrise. But that was Darius's problem, which he would take care of on his own.
She peered back at her book. But again she was distracted by how the lights ignited his young, pale face, decaying slightly from his lack of souls. He would feed before they got on the plane, Amanda would make sure he did it. Or maybe he would take care of that problem himself. Every light they passed, his face brightened and darkened, accentuating the sharp chiseled features he carried. He looked over; she jumped and looked down at her book again, trying to read the lines of chant without actually speaking them.
She finally closed it, stuffing it into her bag with the others. She rubbed her eyes and leaned back. I summoned him. But I wasn't summoning anything specific. I had no idea what was to come of it... it was my first serious spell ever.
I got so tired of being alone. I got tired of guys looking at me once and then turning to chat away with their 'perfect' teenage dream girls while I was left to read my fantasy novels, aching inside and destroying the pain with some good old fashioned adventure reading.
But after awhile that doesn't work anymore. I can't enjoy my books, I can't write. I can't see anything clearly beyond my own pain. I wanted to hurt things and myself, most of all. What was I doing wrong? What would it take to be accepted into their world? Even just to have a friend...
Her eyes glittered before she quickly wiped them, putting it off as just being tired. She slumped down, holding her heavy bag in her lap. At first I thought he was so creepy... and, sorry to say, but extremely disgusting if not a little cool looking with the whole undead look. Now, it's as if I can't stop looking at him. All this trouble, just to lose the one man in the whole universe who may care about me... but all he cares about is... is revenge. Getting back at this Kain guy.
He's going to leave me. I can't keep him.
She was suddenly angry. Amanda couldn't help it. She saw her fingers curl into balled fists of repressed rage and squeezed her eyes shut. Trembling, she took a few steadying breaths and turned away from Raziel, looking out her window at the snow drifting steadily as the car passed by in the midnight highway. Disappointment and hatred came together in her heart and boiled there, determined to cook and stew until it would poison her.
They arrived at the airport, startling Amanda out of her angry thoughts. She took off from the car first, leaving Raziel alone to figure out the means of opening the door. He stood up, stretching, and cracking his back by turning sharply one way, then the other. He watched her as she stood in the light of the airport, open all day.
"I will wait here, in case trouble comes calling that neither of you can handle by yourselves," Darius spoke, waving his hand at him. His eyes glowed with the vampire's shine, giving him a feral, animalistic look to his otherwise aristocratic features.
"Thank you, Darius," Raziel whispered, reaching for his hand. He shook it. "For everything. I must repay you for all you've done."
"I don't need anything from you. It was your strange powers that scared me into it, remember. If it weren't for my soul..."
"Speak no more. You don't want to vex me, do you?" Raziel interrupted, raising a claw. He chuckled, and for a moment, Darius shared in his amusement.
"Not if I value my soul, friend. And... Lord Raziel, one last thing... make sure you look after her while you're here. There's no telling what sort of dangers lie ahead in wherever you're going."
Raziel agreed with a curt nod. He walked around the steaming engine of the truck, whose heat rolled away into the wintry sky like the dark monsters of the Spectral Realm. He hungered for souls, but there were none within his immediate sight. But the Reaver was stirring nevertheless, and hungered with almost equal savagery for what souls it can draw into itself.
He continued toward Amanda. She held the tickets, reading them, nodding her head. "We take off in about 45 minutes. Wow. Uhh... that Petra really knows her stuff. She knew I was coming, AND she magically conjured up tickets to get us on the plane with reasonable time to spare." She snorted. "Sometimes she really scares me."
"She scares you because she has power," Raziel replied calmly, plopping down comfortably in a patch of dry snow. He flicked his black hair back behind his pointed ear. "Power that allows her to have some control over you. You mustn't let her frighten you. The trick is to pretend not to let her power bother you, but at the same time prove that you can get along just fine without them manipulating your puppet strings."
"And suddenly you're an expert on all of this?"
"I know more than you," Raziel snapped, giving her a cold disapproving stare. "I know so much about manipulation."
"Having practiced it yourself, no doubt!"
The vampire tensed. Why was she attacking him? "No. From being the victim of lies. My whole existence has been a lie. A bleeding scab only to be torn away to let the bloody truth flow and infuriate me. Forever thinking to be one thing, but in the cold reality being something else entirely. I know not what I am."
He paused, staring at her as she picked at a string sticking out of her bag. She avoided his gaze, and he continued, in a softer tone of voice.
"What is bothering you so?"
Amanda shrugged. Her brow was furrowed, in such a way that made her look... angry. Hurt. She finally reached down with her teeth, tearing at the string and snapping it loose and twining it about her index finger. "Don't ask me anything else. Let's just wait."
Raziel bristled, but turned his head away. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back and felt the cold winter wind touch his face and then breeze by, wrapping the airport vestibule in a chilling vampire embrace, draining it of warmth, before moving on into the night.
Darius walked from his car in the parking lot through the darkness. There was a car waiting in the shadows just beyond the fence along the road. He approached it cautiously, each step deliberate as he considered the pros and cons of the coming encounter. The vampire sidled up to the car and turned away as he had been instructed. The window rolled down slowly.
A voice permeated from within, like the sound of dry, worn skin passing over well-worn wood. It gave him chills, excited and scared the vampire to his very bones. For this was the voice of his Sire, his father in the Blood who he alone answered to.
"My son, turn and look at me now. For I have much to tell you and so little time."
"Anything, Lord," Darius whispered as he turned, exhiliration flowing in his veins at the proximity of the Sire. "Tell me what I can do."
"Come inside. It's freezing."
He did so. He slid into the seat, seeing much in the dark. His Sire's eyes gleamed like cold fire in the shadows. But that was enough. He heard the window roll up again and as he settled in, he felt the weight of the older vampire's hand settle softly on his thigh. "It's been a long time... I am pleased to have kept in close contact with you, however. Where are they destined?"
"Egypt. I'm not sure where... but to follow them will be a simple matter." Darius gasped softly, feeling his master draw close, his chill breath against his ear.
"Yes... simple... but you have done enough... let me do the honor now." His hand tightened on his child's thigh, close to his hip, making the younger vampire tense and whine slightly. There came a low, rasping chuckle. "It has been a long time since ever I traveled across the sea..."