Late afternoon of the next day saw the four, Raziel, Lara, Rose, and Kain, all walking through the mall. Raziel and Kain looked at all the people around with identical looks of, 'So many humans, so little time.' Rose was busy window-shopping, and had quickly abandoned her parents and uncle, and Lara walked slowly along, patiently keeping stride with Raziel. As often as he came here, he never got over his initial reactions of so many humans all freely doing business without any fear of vampires. He found it an excellent playground.

Rose walked calmly out of one of her favorite stores to hear a voice state behind her, "Hello." She turned curiously to see one of the mall police walking up behind her.

"Hello," she responded cautiously. "What can I do for you?"

He smirked darkly. "There are a few things you can do to me," he responded, blatantly looking her up and down. Rose sighed irritably.

'Why do I always attract me like this?!' she demanded of herself silently. 'I may still be a virgin, but I am definitely not a woman who's easily pushed over and bedded.'

"Thank you," she forced out between gritted teeth, "for the invitation, but I'd rather not."

She turned and walked down the mall, but heard his footsteps behind her. He pulled up next to her.

"Now, you don't need to go so quickly," he cooed. Rose snarled inwardly.

"Look," she turned to him and glanced at his name tag, "Hubert—"

"I didn't know we were on a first name basis," he interrupted.

A sudden hand grabbed the cop's arm and jerked him back, away from Rose. Hubert found himself looking at a pale white face of a young man, and angry, narrowed golden eyes that had to be contacts.

"You will leave her alone," Kain growled. The cop pulled his arm out of Kain's grasp.

"Stay out of this, pretty boy," Hubert retorted before turning back to Rose. Kain growled and grabbed the cop, twisting him around. The policeman moved with the twist, a fist clenched, and punched Kain. The vampire, slightly surprised by the human whelp's audacity, backed up a step. Hubert turned back to Rose, and Rose watched as red lightning began to crackle across Kain's body. His form grew a foot taller, his golden eyes shifted to a cat yellow, and his skin took on a yellow-green tinge. His clawed fingers melted together into three long talons. He tapped the cop's shoulder lightly, and it felt almost like a punch to the human. He winced and turned to see Kain leaning down, his face inches away from his, fangs bared. Hubert's eyes widened and in a millisecond, some long dormant instinct told him that this thing was a danger to humanity and had to restrain and confine it away from people as soon as possible. Unaware of what he was doing, he grabbed the can of Mace on his belt and sprayed in into Kain's face. Kain let out a roar of pain and pulled back, claws going to his face. Rose rushed to his side immediately, and gasped as she saw steam rising from his skin. Rose turned a deadly glare on the cop and hissed, exposing her fangs, having remembered one of the largest ingredients in Mace was: water.

Kain shoved her away from him, snarling, "He's mine." The skin where the Mace had hit was red and looked infected. Kain's claws curled in on themselves and launched forward, connecting with the cop's torso and sending him up into the second level of a three-story mall. Kain lunged up after him and Rose glanced around, then ran toward her parents. Raziel noticed the danger immediately and quickly climbed up after him. Kain pulled his claws back to rip out the mortal's heart as Hubert recovered, when his claws were suddenly stopped. He turned accusingly on Raziel who held his arm.

"What are you doing?" Raziel demanded.

"This pathetic wretch of a mortal challenged me, sprayed water in my face, and was propositioning your daughter."

Raziel blinked at him a moment, then the policeman also found a blue-skinned, white-eyed being baring down on him, wielding some kind of energy blade. The human wisely screamed and ran. The very angry Soul Reaver and master vampire followed.

Rose turned to her mother and asked, "As much as I love them, don't you think at times I'm a little overprotected?"

"That may be so," Lara agreed, "but they were both raised in a world where killing was necessary to survive, and they've both now been confined to a world that frowns on such behavior. This way they vent some of their frustrations with the world." She glanced at Rose out of the corner of her eye as she added, "Plus, you are very important to both of them."

Rose blinked at her blankly and Lara smiled secretively. Rose had never been told about her ability to breed vampires. The trio had decided at the wedding Rose hadn't needed to know until the proper time. Lara knew Rose even privately thought she was sterile. It worried her slightly that Rose would one day sleep with someone without protection and become pregnant, but so far Rose hadn't shown any interest in long-lasting relationships, and Lara knew Rose didn't want to sleep with anyone unless it was a long-time thing. So she didn't worry about telling her daughter for the time being.

In the meantime, Raziel and Kain had cornered and beaten the mortal within an inch of his life. To finish it all off, Kain lifted him by the throat and dropped him down to the first floor. He landed in a fountain with a resounding splash. Rose and Lara walked over to where he fell.

From above, Kain shouted down, "Is he still alive?"

Rose watched the human start to crawl out of the fountain.

"Yes," she called back. Kain walked away from the railing, then came back with a hotdog stand. He dropped it into the fountain and on top of the policeman. Rose heard him groan and pass out, but he was still breathing.

"Is he dead now?"

"Still alive."

Kain snapped his talons. "I'm loosing my touch."

Suddenly, there was a lot of shouting and running as police came in and quickly surrounded Raziel and Kain, weapons drawn. Lara grabbed Rose's arm and led her out of the mall. Raziel and Kain, wisely deciding that in this situation, discretion was the better part of valor, jumped over the railing and landed below, running full-speed out of the doors toward Lara's car. Lara and Rose had climbed into it already and watched as Raziel slid into the passenger seat, Kain into the back with Rose. Lara slammed down on the gas pedal, streaking away before anyone could get the license plate number.

"Challenged by two mortal humans in as many days," Kain growled. "What is wrong with this world?!"

Rose laughed loudly and kissed him on the cheek in thanks for defending her honor. She knew it wasn't something he did very often.

Later that afternoon, Rose crept down toward the guest bedroom Kain was in, a malicious smile on her face. She was bored and feeling particularly mischievous. She sneaked into the room and knocked on the top of the sarcophagus. There was a slight growl from within, then the lid was shoved aside. Kain fixed her with a steely glare.

"Yes?"

"I had a bad dream," she stated while grinning impishly. Kain blinked at her, an eyebrow raised. He had long ago shifted back to his younger form.

"So?"

Well fine." Her joke lost, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to walk away. "Last time I try to mock something I did when I was little."

As she moved to walk away, Kain lunged up, grabbed the back of her shirt, and pulled her into the sarcophagus. He slammed the lid shut, wrapped a loose arm around her, and pointed at her, saying, "Now, go to sleep." He shut his eyes and slipped into rest. Rose blinked at him in surprise a moment, then smiled slightly. He had changed a lot since she had last seen him, and not for the worse. She couldn't deny the fact that he was quite handsome, and she had known him since she was little . . .

'No, no, no.' She shook her head. 'He's my uncle, for God's sake.' Yet, in actuality, she didn't have any idea how exactly he was her uncle. She just knew that's what she had grown up calling him.

'But think about it,' another part of her mind whispered to her. 'He is everything you could want. And you've loved him every since you first met him.'

She quickly jammed the thought to the back of her head. She was going to be leaving England for the United States in four days, and he was probably going to go back to Nosgoth. She knew he certainly wouldn't want to come with her to the U.S. She sighed slightly and snuggled against his chest, forcing herself to slip back into sleep.

Rose woke late in the evening as normal and sat up to stretch. Or, started to, anyway. Before she had even gotten halfway up, she smacked her head into something hard. She looked around and found herself currently lying on top of Kain, her legs straddling his lower stomach, and her head had hit the lid of the sarcophagus. She leaned down and rubbed her head muttering, "I forgot."

She looked down at the vampire beneath her for a long moment. She would have to ask her father how he was related to them. It bothered her that she didn't know.

She shoved the lid off to the side quietly as not to wake him, then paused to look back at him before climbing out. Abandoning all thoughts of morality, she leaned down and kissed him lightly before climbing out and shutting the lid again. She quickly headed out of the room and shut the door.

From within the sarcophagus, Kain smirked slightly.