Smoke: Thank you for the advice. I knew I had to get the story moving anyway... but I had to get Janos/Hylden Lord out of the way. And Torrent had to be someone other than some guy that helped them out. I noticed a lot of the character I insert end up getting forgotten or lost... It probably would have made more sense to spring Janos on Kain and Amanda first... Winces now that I think about it, I'd rather have it be that way now... but I'll have to make it work like it is.

Oh well... can't go back now.. sighs Well..I could..but I don't feel like it. Besides, rewriting makes me feel dirty.

--Amanda--

When I awoke some time later, the last rays of the sun were touching the Pillars where I could see them from underneath a large cloak. I closed my eyes again, and an ache unlike anything I'd ever felt made me twist my hands through my brown-red hair. It dominated my upper back and spread down my ribs, cracking them, and tears spilled from my eyes. When it was over I called plaintively for Kain - had he left me here?

Torrent knelt in front of me, peering carefully under the cloak. "Are you well?" he asked tentatively, uncertain as to what was my problem.

I whimpered and shook my head, which made the cloak stir and rustle. It smelled like Torrent and faint traces of blood reached me. As the sun set and darkness settled, I reached out toward toward him, my long white arm and fingers grabbing wrist. "Don't sit so close to me," I growled gutturally before grudgingly relinquishing my hold.

Torrent scuttled away as fast as he could. I could tell he was scared of me, and this both hurt and made me glad. I didn't want any new friends.

"Where's Kain?" I demanded as I sat up gingerly, brushing the cloak from my shoulders.

"He went off to see what's ahead. We're going somewhere very dangerous, I'd like to let you know," Torrent answered. While he spoke, I bunched up the cloak and tossed it at him. He plucked it up from the ground and shook it out before sliding it back on over his shoulders.

Kain materialized from the trees with the Reaver in hand. My body lurched again, propelled to my sire like a moth to a flame. He peered at me when I came close, then held one arm around my back when I leaned against his hard chest. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know," I wheezed. "My back hurts really bad, Kain. And I'm thirsty. Could you...?"

"Ah," Kain smirked. Then his glare turned on Torrent. "Leave us, unless..."

"I understand! I'm going, I'm going," Torrent muttered before leaving through the trees.

Kain stroked my hair. I could feel his touch through each strand like fire. I didn't close my eyes, because I knew who would be looking at me there behind my sight - Raziel, searching me for the truth.

"Amanda," Kain murmured, and looking upon his wrist I saw his blood ready for me. I sank my teeth into it, heard his groan of satisfaction, and drank deep from the unholy river of his blood. Each mouthful made me feel whole again. I would still be his fledgling for years to come, I realized, until I would no longer be dependent on his blood to restore my health.

When it was finished, I stood on my own and though the pain in my back still remained, I was ready for travel. Kain rubbed his arm from where I had drank, and I blushed. "We are going to the Aerie. The Hylden Lord has taken up residence there... and seeing as how you're on the mend, we ought to be off there."

I nodded slowly. The Reaver was watching me - each time I saw it in his hands I always felt its gaze from the baleful eyes of the skull near the hilt. Kain strode off into the trees where Torrent was waiting.

--Kain--

The journey was shorter than I expected. Torrent didn't appear to know the way as well as he had boasted, but maybe he was taking us in circles on purpose. The human seemed troubled enough; I didn't trust him nearly enough as Amanda did. She even spoke to him once in awhile but preferred to stick by herself. She often twisted her arms back to rub her shoulders with grimaces of discomfort - when I questioned, she said she didn't know.

The air was colder the farther we went until we stood upon the edges of a lake. Here was the Aerie - it was a mock representation of the vampire who once lived here. Skeletal trees stood on either side of the lake, covered with frost and filth. The lake was deep, dark with blood and refuse. Many of the stones that proved to be jumping points had sunk to the bottom in pieces. Torrent stood underneath a stand of trees just a few yards, wrapped in his cheerless cloak with a funereal air about him.

Upon this abject scene my daughter stood, long in thought with her eyes pinned on the Aerie across the rancid body of water. There wasn't a demon in sight... and yet I felt the chilling premonitory wind as a great figure flew past and land on the shore away from the water. Had I known Janos was possessed, it may have prepared me for the great disadvantage I had concerning his flight and I was bound to the earth.

"Kain," the Hylden Lord said. "You've returned at last... and you've brought a friend. How kind of you. How... reckless."

"I should hope you believe that you will defeat me today?" I replied. Already Amanda was moving back to stand some distance to my left, and her hands were glowing with a witch's fire. I wasn't positive that she could still use her magic, but there it was - ready to fire at the start of the battle. "But how can you fight two of us?"

"Why... Kain. You forget that you are standing on the threshold of the new Hylden base. I have many minions ready in the shadows to rip your throat out."

"Torrent," Amanda said suddenly, looking as the dark-haired boy stumbled over to the water. He looked like a rabbit with his leg cut off and couldn't seem to walk straight at all - and then I saw for myself the dart that had punctured his leggings and his skin, and there he fell into the water, unconscious but safely above it, breathing easy. "He betrayed us, Kain!"

"I know," I mumbled flatly. My eyes captured the demon's. "Hylden... you know I will kill you one way or another."

"Very well... I will see to it that you'll get your sport." The being lashed forward so quickly that he was more or less a black blur that covered the distance between them in less than a second. Both wings battered forward, stars exploding behind my eyes when I struck my back against a tree. The incessant screaming of watching demons filled the air, and the fireball Amanda had prepared struck its mark when the Hylden lord stopped to gloat over his blow.

We took our turns, she and I, exchanging blow for blow what the winged monstrosity dished out. Amanda was slow and young, but her magic was effective enough so that when lightning exploded from the skies, making my ears ring, and the possessed Janos struck the earth with each black feather stained with blood, Amanda came out with a few bruises and I, covered with open gashes. I quickly stole over to the prone body of Janos, seeing that he was himself.

"Kill me," he rasped, clawing at his throat. "Quickly... Before he takes me again!"

The Reaver was practically roaring for death. The blade was glowing, the savage nature of my once firstborn son trembling to the very hilt of the blade. Amanda crouched with her hands glowing with an eerie resemblance to the same fire that burned in the blade. I couldn't kill Janos - suddenly I was utterly lost, as if every coherent thought abandoned me. There lie Janos, bleeding and dying with my most hated enemy harbored in his body. Kill me, he says. But Janos was... was...

What should I do?

"Kill him!" Amanda howled, her eyes wild with murderous lust, falling to her knees with her hands in the dirt. The demons' cries were terrible - drowning out my thoughts, angering me--

The murderous demons, at some command I did not intercept, charged at once. Janos rose up slowly, bleeding, and I, helpless and somehow stunned beyond measure, found myself at the mercy of a dozen or so. Finding my strength, I fought against them while Janos watched from behind the eyes of his captor, the ignominious Hylden Lord. Amanda swung a large beam of wood at her enemy, cracking it open on their heads, infusing it with every bit of hatred she could muster. She was valiant, but what was a piece of wood to this countless, unswaying horde?

We were defeated. It was not a fair battle, but it somehow still hurts to be so inarguably put down like a pair of clumsy fools. We weren't killed, but subdued long enough to be borne more or less to the tall spires of what was once Janos Audron's beautiful Aerie.