--Author's Notes--

This is indeed an interesting chapter. Full of a kind of cheesy humor, you might say, but interaction is good too. I am proud! Behold, chapter 12, and very soon now if I'm lucky, chapter 13... Ohh, inevitable number 13. But chapter 8 is my unlucky chapter.

Thanks for reviewing, all! I'm going to keep writing now that I don't have to struggle so much in school...

--Kain--

That very same night, we ventured out into the darkness. The stores that were closed, I taught Amanda to break into. She was nervous, lacking an ocean of self-confidence, so I used a tactic I often used on my children before - scare them into doing it. She came back with a bundle of nice clothes, looking white as a sheet and looked at me as if her eyes could tear my head off and make it combust.

She wore a pair of snug, black faded jeans, her own sneakers, and a snug black long-sleeved shirt and a long, black coat that she must have taken from vampires anonymous. She looked the part, with her hair tamed into a pony tail and her eyes bright and dark and as deep as the fathomless sky.

"This is happening too quickly to be very convenient," I told her quietly as we hurried back to our little cabin. We dropped her things off before setting out again, in a slightly familiar direction. "But I must teach you these things quickly, and as time progresses you will grow stronger."

"I know all about that," Amanda said with a sigh. She already looked tired, but there was no better time to teach than now.

We followed the sound of talking to another one of those vehicles. I had no love for cars, and still don't - I express great joy when I remember Nosgoth has such more simpler means of transportation - but my fledge daughter didn't mind.

"Take that one," I commanded softly, brushing my talons over her back. She stiffened and looked back at me, her eyes as cold as a deer's caught in the crosshairs. "What's the matter?"

"They're police! Can't you tell?"

They wore uniforms of some kind, this much I could tell. They were talking in low, serious voices - no wonder - not far away there were the bodies of my meal before, bloodless and eviscerated. I shook my head, growling softly. "They mean nothing to you. Perhaps you don't remember what they did for you when you were with Darius. They are worthless, they only see the surface of your world. They don't see us... Now go."

Her face hardened, her lips curving into a tight scowl of dislike. She turned back toward the officers and started to sneak forward, slipping behind one of their cars, while I followed from a different route. Deep inside, worry gnawed on my soul like a starving thing. I was terrified for her, but remembered that as long as I was there, she would come to no harm. I wouldn't dare let anything happen to her. I did it for Raziel... and for me.

She stalked right up to his back, while I grappled the other man from behind, holding him silently while Amanda struggled with the guard. He swung his firearm wide, firing his weapon and shattering the glass of the window next to my arm and damn near startling the hell out me. I quickly dispatched my prey, while my fledgling got wise, bashed her own over the head with her hand. She looked astonished at her own strength, which made me cackle with amusement.

A moment later, I watched her sit on the unconscious man's chest and drink like a starving lioness. And, that little animal, she growled at me when I tried to come up behind her. She turned her eyes on me and glared like a she-demon. I bit my tongue to stop myself from laughing at her.

When we were finished, we deposited the bodies into the car, and sent the beastly machine careening over a cliff.

--Amanda--

I had better warn you now that learning isn't easy. I was good in school, but only after battling my awkwardness that summertime idleness awarded me. Basically, I beat the laziness out of myself accordingly to work myself into shape for some downright grueling academic endorsement.

The same applied to vampirism. I didn't want to get up every night and practice doing the basic things that Kain did. I mean, sure, it was cool to watch him jump around like good vampires should, but I was... well, I was afraid.

A week into the future had me standing on top of a six story building in the more developed section of the Mediterranean coast. Kain was standing behind me at an uncomfortable proximity, and folded his arms over his chest. The Reaver was with us, and the baleful eyes seemed to penetrate my soul and mock me for my cowardice.

"I don't have all night," Kain said irritably. "Jump, or I'll make you."

"Can't we just go out and eat? This is insane. I can't jump."

"Yes, you can."

"No, I can't."

Kain gave me a measuring look, and a stare that said novels about how much I was going to pay if I didn't do as he said. "Try it. Now. Just think of the torment you'll go through if you don't, thinking what an idiot you are for not even trying. Wars are not won, nor battles fought, by being frightened."

I looked down sheepishly. He was right; if I did not try, I was bound to begin doubting myself and hating every minute of my life because of my silly fears. But still... the building across from us was well over twenty-five feet away. The street below was somewhat busy, and if I fell...

I failed to notice Kain as I deliberated what it would feel like if my immortal body struck the pavement at full speed. Before I had the nerve to react, he seized me by the jacket I wore with one hand, then by the seat of my pants with the other.

"What the hell?!" I struggled, my face flushing red. I bared my fangs, waving my arms. "Kain! No, no, don't throw me!!"

He gave me an innocent, malicious little smile. Oh, god, I could slap that mouth, I thought. Then just as sure as the sun rises, I found myself flailing helplessly, before smashing into the garbage heap on the other side of the street on the rooftop.

The gorgeous moon was full and almost bloody. I stared at it and then rolled onto my feet, dusting myself off in time to see Kain sailing over the gap and landing gracefully at the edge of the roof. He strode over to meet me and chuckled at my disarray.

"Was that fun?" he inquired in a faux-friendly tone.

I smiled a little bit. In fact... it rather was. "Why the hell did you do that, anyway?"

"When one stands around doing nothing, one begins to... want to try things. Besides, there is more than one way to skin a cat."

"Or throw a chick," I added, annoyed. But, since I was over here, and we were on the subject of skills, I put my hand on his arm lightly and peered up at him. "Daddy," I asked, using my most childish and pleading voice. "Would you so much as mind throwing me...again?"

"Good lord, what have I started now?" Kain seized me up into his arms and gave me an awkward, if not powerful, hug. It was then the fabric of my sanity began to break open new lesions, and my heart quailed at the contact that was physical that meant no harm.

I pulled away, my eyes watering and my vision turning red from the tears. "Don't touch me," I whispered hoarsely before turning slowly turning away. I rubbed my arms.

The night seemed colder than before. Then there was the presence of the sword, and Raziel's spirit inside of it. The proximity of it made my stomach hurt, and my chest ache as if there was something missing. Kain probably wouldn't understand such a thing - all I know of him was he was a good leader, a powerful fighter, and someone whom I didn't care much for yet.

I tried jumping at last. I became more adept at this feat, and the more I practiced, the better I jumped. Each jump seemed more like Kain's, but with my own style and flair. I felt like I was in a Matrix movie, and laughed a little as I recalled a scene where Neo was required to practice 'freeing his mind'.

I licked my lips; my exertions made me thirsty. Finally Kain and I retired to the dark lower streets, filled with our accorded prey, and fed on the evil and the unwanted. When we retreated to the woods and the cabin, Kain stopped me in the darkness of the trees. It was startling to find him look at me with his burning yellow eyes, thoughtful and strangely warm with their fatherliness.

"What would you like to do, Amanda?" He spoke in all seriousness, with more warmth that I thought him capable of. His body relaxed against the trunk of a large tree, regarding me with a mixture of resignation and peace.

I thought about it. Then my eyes blooded again and I rubbed at them tiredly. "I want to go back to New York."

"Where is that, then?"

"Across a whole ocean... but I know ways to get there. Without those vehicles you hate so much. I need magic again, but I can get that easily. I've got my books back already, and some herbs and stones. I just need time and power..."

"Why do you want to go there?"

"That's none of your business. You asked me what I wanted already, now leave it the fuck alone." I stunned him with my vehemence as best I could, but he seemed immune. He still got the message and was wise enough to do just as I said, but I almost wished he'd assert his stubborn will upon me and make me talk to him.

That was one thing Raziel could do.

--Kain--

I was stunned; she was unexpectedly brutal when it came to questions about her personal life. But whatever lie in this New York, she would probably be better for it... or so I hoped.

The next evening I found her gathering her things together in a pack. She gasped as she stood up, lifting it as if it weighed nothing but yet it carried so many things. "This is...this is awesome." She put it down, picked it up, and repeated maybe five or six times before I grew a little annoyed.

"Yes, yes, didn't you know that your strength is phenomenal? Can you please explain to me what you're doing now?"

"Jesus," she sneered. "Woke up on the wrong side of the coffin, Dracula?"

"I do wish you would stop calling me that..."

"Sorry, daddy," she replied, and for a moment she seemed sincere. "But... I'm packing up. I think I've got my spell ready. I don't know if I'm capable of casting, but we'll see."

I stood in the corner of our secret cabin, with candles lit all around us. I could see by their light the complex design she had drawn in the floor with her blood, which she had dispensed at a great cost for she had fed double the usual amount tonight already.

She chanted, lighting incense as she went. The process made me feel an unsettling disorientation. My mind wandered to places, thinking of the night and its strangeness. My eyes blurred while I focused on insignificant details in front of me, the shine of light on my daughter's hair, the wrinkles in her shirt sleeve as she signaled with her hands.

Then the symbols in the floor gushed with energy, like a sonic wave. I gasped and jerked to attention, severely embarrassed that I was found dozing thus. But my attention was taken by the glowing symbols, their swirling inner power and Amanda's triumphant smile, her fangs glittering in the unearthly light emanating from her craftsmanship.

She stood up, gasping a little as she leaned against the couch nearby. The floor was pulsating, and for awhile I thought I was looking into the Vampire Citadel's many labyrinthine portals, reflecting a place I had never seen before in my life.

"Come here," she said raggedly. "We can go in now. It'll vanish when we are gone." She reached out to me, clearly weakened from her efforts. I stepped toward her and took her hand, and pulled her closer to me so that she could lean against me. Together, then, we made our way into the clutches of her portal and were transported with all magical swiftness to a new and unsettling continent.

I emerged to a much... colder, and unusual place than our old home had been. Amanda had stumbled away from me and stood on a stone ledge, overlooking a river which tumbled over a disassembled dam, crashing hopelessly into the gloom which was broken occasionally by lights peering through the pine trees and hemlock.

She shivered and looked around. There were broken sticks, and snow piled up haphazardly around the path. There were traces of footprints in the ground around us, but they were indeed quite old. She sank down on her knees in the snow, oblivious to the sudden chill.

Her voice was soft, and far away. I wasn't positive that she was talking to anyone in particular. "It was here... I met him here..."

I took a slow breath, stepping toward her to touch her hair. I didn't like the way she was acting. No daughter of mine should be so weak. Perhaps it was the spell that taxed her strength so - perhaps it was something else.

She stood up slowly, ignoring my silent offer for assistance. Then she turned and started walking back away from the river as if nothing had happened. "My old house... where I used to live. It's this way," she responded, waving for me to follow.