A/N: I'm sorry to do this to you, you're all wonderful. It's just that DAS has been the source of my uncoquerable block. (It's still there after my real life problems have lessened, so I'm blaming the story.) I tried launching into the rewrite, but I was just making the problem worse. I wrote down the entire plan a couple days ago, now I'm going to bury the entire thing in peat moss and start fresh once I've had a chance for the shit to settle to the bottom.

Don't expect to see this again for several months. If you like the current version, save it to your hard drives because I will pull it down once I restart.

The blocked version of chapter 16 is in my deviantart scraps as number 19029097 . My attempt at a rewrite is number 19028292 . There's also other old peices of the story in there as well.

It was dark when Raziel returned to the Aerie several days later. Janos must have been out hunting, as he was not to be found.

Raziel strolled through the retreat until he found Sarah in the library. She was huddled in a blanket in front of the fire.

"I've been to Avernus, and I saw the mural that you mentioned," Raziel said as a way of announcing his presence.

Sarah inclined her head towards Raziel, but said nothing as he crouched next to her by the fire.

"I also saw another mural while I was there," Raziel continued. "According to it, the ancient vampires were the ones who started the war."

Sarah stared mutely at Raziel. No hatred showed in her eyes, only a patient attentiveness.

"If I could truly choose which side to be on, which one is right?" Raziel finally asked.

"The ancient vampires were squid-worshippers that started a war that raged for thousands of years just because another race didn't share their beliefs." Sarah said dully.

"Then it is the other race that is right?" Raziel asked.

"They were building a genocide machine when they were banished," Sarah frowned. "They'll finish it if they manage to get out."

"Neither seems very appealing," Raziel commented dryly.

"Your allegiances seem to shift as you gain new information," Sarah said mysteriously. "Your loyalty is always to yourself."

Raziel turned stared at Sarah and suddenly noticed a flush in her cheeks. He realized that he had mistaken quiet attentiveness for an empty gaze. She blinked dully and fell into a swoon.

Raziel caught her to keep Sarah's head from hitting the floor. He was surprised at how warm she felt.

"I'll be fine," Sarah deliriously muttered as she pressed her forehead against Raziel's cool arm.

When Janos returned, he was carrying a small parcel of herbs to reduce Sarah's fever. "Sarah told me that she only had a cold, but I decided that she needed treatment," Janos explained to Raziel. "I had to pin that poor healer against a wall just to explain Sarah's symptoms to him."

A day passed, and Sarah's condition worsened considerably.

"What could be causing this?" Raziel asked as he wet Sarah's forehead with a damp cloth.

"What do you care?" Sarah asked weakly.

Raziel pulled his eyebrows together in a frown. "I'm relying on your damn secrets being the key to thwarting my destiny."

"My secrets won't die with me," Sarah murmured sadly. "I must warn you that I still think it's dangerous for you to know everything, but I wrote it all down."

"Where are they?" Raziel asked.

"Janos knows where they are," Sarah assured. "I told him that he must never look at them."

Raziel re-wet the cloth. When he turned back to Sarah, she had her eyes squeezed shut as if in pain.

"I want to go home. I don't want to die here," Sarah sobbed. "I want to believe that he isn't there, that the god of the underworld isn't hungry."

Raziel sighed in sympathy. Most mortals did not have the certainty of knowing where they were going. He knew that he could offer no comfort to Sarah; any assurance would be a lie, and they both would know it.

"How do you know about that parasite?" Raziel questioned.

"I know your story from the time you first met it," Sarah whispered.

When Sarah's fever spiked, it became clear that she would not recover. She gibbered in her sleep, and cried out wishes against being eaten.

"Janos, don't let her die," Raziel said.

"You know what you are asking," Janos argued sternly.

"I'd do it myself if I still could," Raziel said. "I believe that she is still important."

"I will not damn her," Janos insisted.

"She's afraid of death," Raziel insisted. "Your wheel is nothing more than a ravenous parasite. There's no mercy in letting Sarah die."

Janos trembled. He trusted Raziel as a savior and messiah, how could he say such things about the one?

After a long silence, Janos murmured, "It must be her choice."

Janos lifted Sarah from her blankets. She reactively clutched at his robes, too feverish to fully comprehend the movement. Janos laid Sarah on the cold floor and within moments she began to shiver violently. It was then that she opened her eyes.

"You are going to die soon," Janos told Sarah gently. "Are you willing to live as a vampire?"

With the temporary reprieve from the fever, Sarah was lucid. Through painfully chattering teeth she hissed, "Please."

Janos scooped Sarah up off the floor and held her close in an effort to restore some of her lost body heat. She spasmed weakly, Sarah's body was already beginning to shut down.

Janos slit his wrist and forced it against Sarah's mouth. He then began muttering the spell that would turn her away from the light. Sarah's body twitched. She was still alive, but too exhausted from her illness to feel the agony of the change. Janos feared that she was incapable of surviving.

Sarah did not wake over the next several days, but her features slowly sharpened into those characteristic of a vampire. Every evening, Janos would siphon off some of her blood and replace it with his own. It worried him that she was still unconscious, though it was a mercy because otherwise she would be in pain.