Chapter 29

Darkness everywhere. Silence, other than the faint rasps of tired lungs, struggling for breath within an unconscious body. The form stirred as chills ran down its spine.

Lara felt her face upon a cold floor and a pain in her ankle from its uncomfortable position under her opposite knee. She grabbed the aching as her mind returned

The world went from a black slab to a blurry portrait as she opened her eyes. She forced her hand across them as her senses were greeted by a blinding brightness. She let out a sigh as the coldness returned, and she slowly arose to a stand.

Lara dropped her arm as her pupils adjusted to the now illuminated spotlight that hung above her. She was confused, but her tired mind kept her from pondering her whereabouts.

She studied the newly formed room; there was nothing. Dark concrete met her eyes as she stared. "Where am I?"

Lara gasped with shock and fear as her head was suddenly jerked backward. She quickly forced her arms behind her, ready to break free from her attacker's hold. Her hands were met by air, nothingness.

Lara tried to force herself around, trying to see the person behind her, violently jerking her hair and bending her neck. The motion stopped and Lara quickly turned. There was no one; the room was empty.

She backed away out of confusion, her eyes timidly scanning the room as her chest rose spastically from fearful breaths. Silence took the room again, building suspense and fear within the weary form that it held. She was motionless as she stared.

Air flew again from weary lungs as Lara felt her feet suddenly being forced backward as though someone had pulled them from under her.

She quickly raised her arms to shield her body as it connected hard with the stone floor.

Lara reached for one of her pistols as she reconstructed her elbows. Her hand met an empty holster.

She stared forward with confusion and quickly stood to her feet. Lara bent her knees slightly and lowered her body, entering a defensive stance, and preparing herself for another attack from the invisible force that was tormenting her body and mind.

Lara motions suddenly halted as a strange noise arose, the noise of amusement and trickery, the noise of laughter. Something had been playing with her mind, and more literally, her body. Another sound gave off behind her, and Lara stared.

She had just noticed the door that was set upon the room's largest wall. It's hinges were pressed forward as the placement stood open. The form of her tormenter's body filled the doorway, her mouth slightly opened, delivering the sounds of humor throughout the small room.

Lara stared, jaw out and nostrils flared, anger within her thoughts as she watched the newly present figure before her.

Mariana held the crooked smile that Lara recalled, and hated. The ancient demon slowly began to enter the room. She studied Lara's figure as she stopped "Hello Lara Croft." her stolen voice echoed throughout the confined space surrounding them. "For once I meet you without a gun barrel in my face."

Lara grimaced without a smile. "Proof that this meeting was not my doing."

Mariana smiled at the words as she slowly began to circle her captive. "Despite my immense hate for you," she stated, holding the grin, "I feel more sorrow over your stupidity than anything else. Not trusting someone is different that not being able to tell when they are helping you."

Lara stared at her with confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"How many has it been?" Mariana asked as the smile disappeared, a serious expression appearing. "How many men have betrayed you in your life? How many men have told you they love you, only to spoil that love with lies and greed?" she paused. "How many men that you actually had feelings for?"

Lara was silent, unsure of the words her enemy spoke, her assumptions of their meaning making her nervous.

"Kurtis is incredibly hansom isn't he?" The demon asked with a sultry smile. "It makes him easier to trust."

The words were coming into focus, though still unclear. Mariana was trying to tell her something, something she didn't want to hear, something about Kurtis. "Don't think for a second that you can turn me against him. I know how you play with words. Kurtis has done nothing. He's the good guy for once."

Mariana paused and stared at the floor as she spoke, "Nephilims can be deceiving."

Lara felt her heart sink at the words. She quickly shook her head trying to throw them away. "Stop." she spoke softly, knowing of the demon's lust for trickery. She couldn't fool her. "He's not-"

"Oh think about it Lara!" Mariana cut her off, slightly frightening the fragile mind. "If you hadn't been gawking over him all this time, you would've seen who the real good guys are, and who has really been helping you...I have."

Lara shook her head with anger before releasing a sarcastic laugh. "Helping me? How the fuck is shooting at me and trying to kill me defined as 'helping'?"

"You were working with him." The demon spoke words that made no sense. "The man that the wraiths were created to destroy, the man who would spread evil throughout the world by bringing back the Nephilim. We thought you were helping him. In all regards you were just as bad as him-if not worse- in our minds."

Lara shook her head at the strange information that had suddenly invaded her thoughts. She forced it away "He isn't reviving the Nephilim!" Lara screamed with confusion. "It's a trick! You want me to believe you so I'll go against him! Fuck you!"

Mariana forced her impatience and anger aside as she stared at Lara. "Then explain his strange powers."

"He's a Lux Veritatis."

"And what about the tattoo?"

"It's the brand of his lineage."

"And the sudden desire he has to impregnate a woman and have a child?"

Lara was silent.

"Mr Lynch warned you, you warned yourself, and now I am warning you. Kurtis Trent is not of the Lux Veritatis, but of the Nephili. The 'brand' upon his shoulder is not of his lineage, but of the same Nephilim heritage, and the only reason behind his ridiculous wanting of a child is so more of his evil can be spread." she paused staring at the pathetic creature before her, tears starting to plague its eyes. "You have seen all the signs, and yet your love for him still blinds you."

Lara stared at Mariana with hatred. "I do not love him."

"Really?" The wraith asked with sarcasm. "Then why the tears? Why the many attempts to protect him? And why the constant rejection of the truth, of his truth?"she paused with a smile as she slightly shook her head. "You fucked him didn't you?" she answered her own questions as Lara looked away. "Of coarse you did, I can still smell him on you." Mariana leaned toward her at the words as she bit her lower lip out of slight jealousy. "No wonder you can't accept the truth."

"Because it isn't the truth!" Lara stated as slight hope entered her mind, certain events making her know that Kurtis was who he had told her he was. "If Kurtis is a Nephilim, then why did he try to stop Eckhardt and the Cabal from awakening the Sleeper?"

"Who ever told you he was trying to stop them?" The evil smile came again. "He who revives the Sleeper will have power over it. Kurtis was trying to steal it."

"But the Vial-"

"The Vial was created by the Nephilim. All it is, is the dark angel's blood. It's just as Kurtis told you only on a different side." she interrupted Lara's statement. "He must feed it into a woman, which will in turn, create a Nephilim of the opposite sex, and then a child can be born. Not a elder, but a Nephilim."

Lara was in shock at the words. Kurtis had told her such things. He had stated that the Lux Veritatis were descendants of the Nephilim, and that the Vial was the natural blood of the horrid creatures. "No!" she told herself. There had to be an explanation.

Lara shook her head again, though the words had cut deeply into her hope. "What about Annaba?" she asked. "The Lux Veritatis stronghold had Kurtis's brand placed all over the walls."

"Ah yes." the demon spoke softly before coming closer to Lara. "That symbol has lost its powers over the years." she shook her head as though in sadness with turned to disgust of Lara's unknown arrogance. "Do you even know what the mark of the Nephilim stands for?"

Lara was silent, giving Mariana the proven assumption that she didn't.

"It is a brand as Kurtis told you, but is isn't to recognize a lineage, it's more of a curse." Mariana explained. "The angels who had betrayed god and were banished to the earth were given the brand as a reminder of their betrayal, and of the salvation they would never receive. God took their treachery as such a horrid doing, that the brand was passed on to the angel's children, marking the Nephilim for who they truly were, and making the world reject them."

Lara stared at Mariana as the words flowed, her jaw was lowered, realization of her partner's treachery making itself more evident.

"The Nephilim have been evil ever since." The demon continued. "They're trying to destroy a world that wouldn't accept them, and a god who condemned them when their ancestors were the true ones to blame." she caringly wiped a tear from Lara's features. She didn't resist. "The ancient Lux Veritatis would place the evil mark of the dark angels upon the walls of their fortresses to ward the creatures off. The symbol used to be such a horrid realization to the Nephilim that even they could not look upon it, but now they have changed it to work to their benefit, and against ours."

"You mean the way it kills the wraiths." Lara spoke as the tears had stopped, their remnants tightening her face.

Mariana shook her head with agreement. "It's all becoming apparent now, isn't it? Kurtis has betrayed you just like all the others. You shouldn't blame yourself though. I also found myself falling for him at one time." she paused. "He used me as well."

Lara's mind had stalled as she stared into nothingness. Her sadness had turned to hatred as the words came into focus. It was just like all the other times, all the times she would open up to a man just to see her heart get broken. It would never happen again.

She clenched her fist together as she looked to Mariana. "What are you going to do to him?"

"That's where you come in." Mariana spoke as she lowered herself to meet Lara's eyes. "He doesn't know about our little meeting, so he will still trust you after the fact." she paused, a grin across her lips. "I need you to get him to Silivri."

"What's in Silivri?."

"The Vial."

Lara felt herself gasp. "You knew were it was this entire time?"

"Ancient scriptures state that the Nephilim hid it their to pay homage to the first of their kind, at the sight where Lucifer himself fell from the sky. The ancient ruins of that event lye in Silivri. If we can destroy the Vial, then their will be no chance that the Nephilim can flourish once more."

Confusion entered Lara's mind, and slight disarray at Mariana's last statement. "If you knew it was there, why haven't you recovered it already?"

Mariana was hesitant with her response. Her mind was wavering, searching for an answer. "Only they who bear the mark of the Nephilim can enter the cavern in western Turkey. We need Kurtis there so we can get in."

Lara was suspicious as the demon spoke, but the thoughts changed as the wraith left the room and quickly returned, Lara's holsters and guns within her hands. If the demon-or whatever she was-would've been deceiving her, she never would've returned the weaponry. Lara stared at the guns that Mariana held in front of her. She slowly raised her hand, her fingertips gracing the barrels of her 9mms.

Lara quickly gripped the gun between her hands, and instantly turned the pistol toward the figure before her. She held it level to the wraith's chest.

Mariana didn't move. Her body and expressions were still, as if knowing that Lara wouldn't pull the trigger, knowing that she wanted to get back at Kurtis for the pain he had caused.

Lara wanted to squeeze her finger tightly against the pistol and blow a hold through the demon's chest, the creature who had impacted so much pain upon her life. Could someone so cruel actually be on the good side? Lara nodded to herself. Her past experiences had proven that question true. It was the men, it was always the men. She had learned her lesson before, but once again, her lust had deceived her. "Never again."

Lara's grip loosened as she sighed, and lowered the gun from Mariana's chest, placing it within her holsters.

Mariana smiled. "Tell Kurtis the Vial's location, and get him there by tomorrow night. We'll be there waiting, and we'll have him trapped with nowhere to go." She paused. "I'll let you do him in."

Lara watched as Mariana slowly began to leave the room. She quickly placed the remaining holsters and guns back onto her placements, and followed the demon out of the small concrete room. They had been in a warehouse of some kind; the neon lights visible through the building's windows proved that they were still in Cerkezcoy.

"I've set up a room for you not far from here, at a place called The Vivec Inn" Mariana spoke as she opened a large door out of the abandoned building. "Just so we can keep up with you."

Lara didn't respond as she walked past Mariana's form and into the darkness of night. She stopped her motion as the figure being her called her name, then followed it with an "I'm sorry about Kurtis." Lara didn't look back as she continued forward, hatred and revenge settling upon her mind.

Mariana watched as the figure before her disappeared into the night. She smiled to herself as she watched her, "Pathetic."