Author's Notes: Okay... so I promised one chapter, but instead gave you like, three or four! At least they're coming out pretty fast, one after another. I'm determined to write something, even if it isn't what most people want to read. And hey! For once, I'm having fun while I write! So enjoy! Comments are appreciated. I do not own Raziel, but I happen to live in the town where he ends up in..so..yeah... but I ain't telling!! Anyway... don't ask me why my rendition of boarding a plane is such crap. I've only done it once in my life and at that time, I was in a stupefied daze.

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The trip to Boston took all but a few minutes. Raziel sat in the noisy plane with a grimace of agony on his face. The sound of the engines so close to his sensitive ears made his hands jump up to cover them. But Boston came quickly, and once he stepped into the building alongside Amanda, who clutched the tickets in her hand, hidden in her jacket. He gasped at the sheer volume of the airport, which was nothing compared to some of the larger junctions in the United States. Still, the place captured his admiration for its sheer size. It reminded him of the huge cathedrals that he had walked through, their ceilings lost in the shadows above.

Amanda had trouble figuring out where exactly their door was to get to the next plane. The crafts outside, like silent dragon statues, moved slowly toward their stations guided by barely visible lines of white on the empty concrete and blacktop snowscape. She read the tickets quietly, then looked up, taking a sharp turn and leaving Raziel completely alone in a group of college students who just happened to begin noticing his pale skin.

"Hey, man, don't you know it's Christmas?"

"I-I'm perfectly aware," Raziel stammered, backing away before turning, hurrying after Amanda, who stood now at the desk.

Amanda very suddenly went pale. Her eyes darted nervously to Raziel, opening her mouth to speak but then the man behind the counter was already speaking. "Two to Egypt? This is your guardian for the trip?"

Raziel nodded, quickly speaking. "Yes. I will look after her on her journey. There is no need to fear."

The employee stared dubiously for several moments. Then he smiled and nodded. "Alright then. Here you go, enjoy your trip."

They recieved their ticket seat stubs, and walked through a long tunnel that eventually opened into a humongous air liner. She didn't have a large bag, so she stuck it up in the baggage compartment before sliding into the seat. Raziel slipped past her and then lowered himself into the windowseat, gazing out the window.

She's still not speaking to me. Very well. I know this trip will be long, so I may as well get some... 'shut-eye'.

The plane glided onto the runway. And suddenly he was thrown back into his seat, neatly startling the Reaver out of him to be perfectly honest, with Amanda leaning over him, struggling to fit the seatbelt over his lap as he had neglected to put it on. She cursed at him rather colorfully, until the thing was on. He gulped a little, narrowing his eyes out the window and refusing to meet her somewhat amused stare.

"It's alright," she said quietly against his side. "Just remember to put those things on when we're taking off and landing. I'll let you know when you can take it off again." That said, she leaned back in her seat with a grimace of discomfort, and began flipping through one of Petra's leather-bound, aged texts.

-=-=-=-=-=-

The smoke-choked fog of Nosgoth wrapped Kain's stronghold like a dirty blanket as true night fell. The great doors of the entry hall burst open and Lieutenant Raziel came striding through them, his eyes piercing the torch-lit shadows as he sought a subject to vent his rage upon. His footsteps cracked the silence like lightning as the flames fluttered at the speed of his long steps.

The throne room opened to him before he reached it. He strode into the center, facing his Lord and dropping onto his knee with a flourish of his clan banner.

"My Lord Kain! Why is it you must send me on these senseless missions of murder?! Needless bloodletting is not by any means in my nature!"

Kain sat as stolidly as any immortal tyrant, gazing with vague disinterest in his Lieutenant's dilemma. The Reaver lay across his lap, and he stroked it idly as he considered the things that Raziel was to endure. He rose finally, and brought the Reaver with him. And for several long, painful seconds, Raziel felt a quiver of terror rippling through him as he saw Kain approach him with the slow, deliberate steps of a manically patient lover... or a killer.

Raziel remained on his knees, Kain's loyal slave and servant, subject to whatever the vampire lord desired. It was not his place to question; surely he would see him punished. The Reaver would be the tool this time. Had he somehow gone too far?

He opened his mouth to speak, but his lips met the cold metal of the Reaver instead. "Shh," Kain interrupted soothingly, bending down - yes, down! - to his level. He reached out, pulling his face close with his right hand, the other manuevering the sword's point into the floor where he leaned on it. "Tell me of your suffering, then. You needn't fear. Tell me... everything."

He was inches from his eyes. They shined with his cunning, his genius. Nothing could stand in Kain's way. Raziel was captivated, his limbs melting into submission as the vampire lord took him into his arms and lifted him up again. He very dimly heard Kain speaking. "Come."

He followed him through another door leading away into the east. They passed into a wide corridor, the walls lined with sconces that flickered and leapt with deadly fire. He had a hard time following Kain, as he moved so fast as to lose sight of him as they turned at a break in the corridor. Jarring himself to catch up, he literally jogged to keep up. Finally there was a door. Kain stood before it, arms crossed with the Reaver pointed at an angle toward the floor.

"Promise me," the vampire lord began, "that you will not speak a word to your brothers of what shall occur in this room."

Not 'what may'. Not 'what could'. But 'what shall be'. Raziel nodded wordlessly, as speechless and afraid as ever. And that's just what Kain wanted to see. His smile was wicked, like the teeth of a devil, sharp, white and full of poison.

The heavy door was pushed open. Inside, it was cool and a single window opened into the chilled Autumn evening air. It was unfamiliar, as no immortal but Kain and his human servants ever stepped into this room. Oftentimes, no mortal stepped back out. Dark red tapestries swept elegantly from the ceiling, and a wall-mirror made of one solid sheet of furnished metal hung from the north wall. Against the south wall there was a canopy bed, with transparent veils of black falling from it. The whole room created a sensual vibe that Raziel couldn't ignore.

"Tell me," Kain interrupted him, standing next to him after hiding the Reaver. "Do you not enjoy the power you wield over your enemies? The principal of life and death lies in your very grasp and you do not even pretend to relish in your supremacy?"

His disbelief was almost... mocking. Raziel shook his head, thinking fast, and answered the only best way he thought best. "I know no other lordship that is higher than yours."

"You didn't answer my question. Or, perhaps, you think that because you are not in 'my' position, there is no cause to exalt in your honorable position?" Kain once again managed to invade his personal space. Raziel minded it little, but as the conversation progressed he liked it less and less.

The vampire lieutenant stole a breath of dead air and turned toward him, meeting Kain's eyes as he pressed close and peered over his shoulder at his face. "I do not percieve slaughtering innocent women and children as honorable, my liege."

"Ah... so there you are," he whispered knowingly. "You are an... evangelist for mankind. I suppose you feel pity for every slanderous soldier you fall in the field of battle, too?"

"That village had none to defend them and you know it! I hated every second of it, watching them burn like... like--"

"Cattle." Kain peeled away from him and strode confidently to the window, by which stood a curtained off corner of the room. "My child... you must understand the weight of our plight. For such as the likes of you has not been seen for centuries, and your very existence is... a phenomenal milestone in the history of Nosgoth."

"What are you saying?" Raziel demanded quietly, watching Kain pace back and forth, slowly wound up in the light of his ideas. "I don't understand."

"Of course not!" Kain laughed at him, stopping to brush his claws over his hair for some reason, pulling it back tighter in a knot of pony tail at the back of his head. "You're an original construct in the fabric of time itself. Something... new." Then he came forward, his eyes suddenly blazing with an immeasurable hunger. Raziel tried to twist away but Kain had him again, and that same terrifying fear gripped him as Kain closed his teeth on his throat.

"Ah...!" His body melted.

His Blood was fire.

And he wanted to end this dream now. Nothing more than to wake up to something familiar, something he was sure of. Not this terrifying exhilirating fantasy that was crafted from his undead mind. Was he mad!? Why was Kain holding him like this? When he could not awaken, he opened his eyes again and fought, snarling, only to feel his teeth penetrate again with a vengeance and he felt the fire in him, consuming him with a feral, primitive hunger. This fire, this need... Raziel began to crave it.

He clung like a limp puppet in Kain's dark, hot embrace of bloodlust. He felt the vampire lord's tongue against his skin like rough, wet paper, licking away at the remnants of his vitality, never draining him completely. It made his innards squirm and his lips part in a quiet moan of distress.

"Even your very essence tastes like power..." Kain murmured appreciatively, breathlessly. Stroking his locks of midnight black and kissing his forehead. "My blessing... my angel of darkness..."

Fading...

....darkness...

Black.

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Author's Notse: So... as stated before, I had to include more Kain vampirism. To explain: I believe that Kain kept his power by drinking from all of his sons, particularly Raziel to an enormous degree, as his blood was the most powerful. (Being Firstborn, he probably took a lot of energy to create... as creating vampires from corpses takes lots of time and energy, I would imagine.) And...basically...yeah. And plus Kain's foresight of what is to come in the future. It gives me reason to assume that Kain favored Raziel in more ways than just his 'advantages' to have him as an ally. Raziel was a good enemy for as long as Kain needed him to be.

Also, I figured the blood drinking would relate more to Blood Omen 1 and 2... the way Kain could absorb abilities by fully draining his vampire victims. But here, he's just getting a cheap high off of Raziel's vitality.

So...that's my reasoning! Winks