--Kain--

Amanda rested against my shoulder, dead asleep (if you will forgive the pun) and I walked in the night aimlessly until we reached the broken, ragged suburban edges of the city, undisturbed by the undead. The dawn light was rising and its brilliance sent me searching in the forests for cover. I found a squatting, humble cabin that hunched over itself on a hill just along a dirt driveway. All alone, it provided me an abandoned shelter that served both as someplace very comfortable and as shelter from the harming effects of the light.

The paralyzed bag of flesh that I'd been carrying, well... she ended up sleeping on a couch, while I quickly arranged sheets and cloth over the windows.

The floors were all hardwood and creaked almost very place I stepped if I took care, or made a 'thunking' sound when I did not. The walls were all stucco, the material cracking and chipping, but painted a very comfortable picture of relaxation. Other than the meager furniture that remained in the old cabin, there was what I thought was a kitchen with bare cupboards and mouse traps hiding behind the refrigerator. I chose to ignore the room completely, because I had no need of kitchens or to even step inside one.

The bedroom was empty save for an old mattress on a wooden frame that sported carvings of olive branches on the headboard. I closed the doors to save the sheets for just the one room.

I sank into a nearby armchair once I was sure the sun had risen and my eyes closed before I could make a conscious deliberation of resting. I was plainly exhausted. All of my exertions, my changing Amanda into my new child. I had barely any time at all to actually make sense of my thoughts as they tumbled around each other, struggling to keep up with the events. Time moved so swiftly and I was unwillingly pulled along for the ride.

I drifted in and out of consciousness. I dimly recollected the sight of the ceiling, with its multitude of grainy indentations and imperfections. I felt as though I had slept for days, but then when I once again peeled my eyes open it felt like only a second. The night air chilled me for the first time in a long time, and I was very, very hungry.

She was just as I left her. But several noticeable changes had come over her. I had no time to notice them now. While she slept in her torpor state, I retreated outside into the darkness in desperate search for sustenance. I realized if I had been truly vampire, my careless antics would have killed me and leave Amanda quite fatherless and alone. But my nature was of a strange duality that lent me more durability than normal circumstances provided.

The shadows unwrapped like a divine present that only a vampire could know. I saw my prey gathered in the darkness, worshipping some unholy deity that would never hear them for it had no such ears. Or perhaps they were just worshipping another vampire. No matter their reason for being, I snuck into their midst and slaughtered them one by one and heartily enjoyed it, if I don't mind saying so myself.

I returned to find Amanda in almost the same way as she had been before. However, she had rolled over, half-falling from the cushions onto the floor with her body arched in so awkward a position that I could only speculate as to how she got that way at all. Smiling ruefully, I bent to pick her up, and place her in a more comfortable position. Then I crouched on the floor, and looked her over.

Her ears had taken on a slightly pointier shape. Her hair covered them, but brushing it away revealed their new shape. Her soft skin was slightly more pallid, but clear. Any imperfection or scarring had been taken care of except one small scar just along the inside of her right eyebrow - probably a long ago incident from her earliest childhood. Her mouth was fuller; everything about her transcended awkward adolescence and placed her neatly into the arms of refined womanhood. She was strikingly beautiful; it would take a blind man not to see that.

"Raziel," I sighed quietly. I let my head droop momentarily, feeling the blood from my feeding warm me. "Raziel, what have you gotten me into? Hm?" He didn't answer. I had hoped that the previous words he had spoken to me before would not be the last.

I wanted someone to talk to.

Hells, does it ever get lonely sometimes!

With little time left to think, I was left with the unsettling probability that I was never going to go home. I had tried hard to push that thought into the darkness of my mind, but it resurfaced with blaring eyes and fangs that sunk in without mercy. I clenched my talons in hopeless anguish, wishing fervently that I was wrong.

A motion from the couch gave me something else to worry about again. The young fledge gave a little hiss as she breathed; a slight tremble of her fingers as she discovered she could move them. Then her eyes opened again for the first time in innumerable days and looked at me.

--Amanda--

I knew I should have been dead. I really did feel dead for the longest time. All around me was nothing, and I couldn't call out to Raziel anymore. But I knew he was around me somewhere, hidden deep inside me. He was glowing, light and warm and felt like a thousand butterflies migrating through me, microscopic and energetic. Then it simply became way too painful to way asleep any longer.

I let my eyes slowly crack open. I felt stiff all over once I became aware of my body, and how stiff it felt. Even my eyelids felt stiff, caked on and heavy. I turned my head and almost heard it creaking from stiffness. The sensation felt peculiar. It was a kind of crackling, like my spine were made of paper.

The first thing I focused on was Kain's rather scary, pensive face. I opened my clumsy mouth and asked tentatively, "What did you do to me?"

"Which part do you want to hear first?" Kain answered plainly. "One thing: if you're thinking I would dare to harm you under specific request not to, you are, might I venture, dead wrong."

"Just make it easy to digest, like baby food," she retorted. "My mind feels like... a stale pot of coffee."

Kain obviously didn't catch that one, but understood the basics of my statement. So he answered, "I had no other choice but to turn you fully into a vampire. You will suffer from mild aches and pains as your body adjusts itself but you will suffer no such deformities as my people have in the past. And finally, know that you will need my blood several times for the change to complete full circle..."

This was the part that required strength and energy and time. It might take a month, or maybe three months, for her to change. And while he was immortal, carrying a sword capable of dealing death to any creature, living or dead, he was still susceptible to weakness and sustained weariness when donating blood to raising a new childe.

I knew this much from my long, if not one-sided lectures with Kamael and what little Darius could reveal to me with his mind. I chewed my lip, trying to reassemble my thoughts again. I was still lost, but in time and with patience, maybe Kain might teach me.

But then again, I was afraid of something. What if Kain decided he didn't need me anymore, and left me to the wolves? Did the vampire have any reason to let me continue on with him once I helped him beyond the point of the portal?

--Author's Notes--

It started getting stale, so I ended it here. Next chapter will include leaping lessons, flying lessons, and hunting lessons. Amusement for all, let me assure you of that, my faithful reader fans!