--Torrent--
The apparition that appeared before me was hellish. I could barely stand to look at it. In fact, I'd rather have not. But its gaze held me like an anchor to my conscious existence. The sleeping poison that coursed through my veins was wearing off, but not enough for me to discount that I might have been seeing a simple nightmare.
The apparition spoke, swaying slowly from side to side as though unable to tolerate being where it was. "Use that thing around your neck against them," it repeated harshly. "Use it well. And you will have to protect yourself against the vampires. Your traitorous ways have lifted you from under their protection. They all mean to kill you now."
"I know," I moaned, turning my head away, biting my hand anxiously. "I know they hate me. There's not a soul in this world who cares if I live or die."
"I care. You'd better live, or I'll hunt down your spirit until you go mad. Awake; get out of this room as quickly as you can." Then the apparition trembled and doubled over, as though terribly pained before vanishing in a wisp of dark green smoke.
When I finally broke free of the poison, I was free to move about in my highly comfortable room. I took a moment to enjoy the soft plush blankets, blood red (naturally), the long dark curtains that kept out most of the sunlight, and the gentle breeze that blew in through the open window. The floor was emblazoned in marble with the symbol of the sword that Kain wielded. The high chandelier seemed to burn constantly by magic, a soft yellow light bathing the entire room.
I was still in awe. Then the words of my tormentor came back, and I touched the stone about my neck with a strange reverence. Only then did I realize why none of the demons wanted to come near me.
The demon looking after me stood up when I suddenly climbed out of bed. My head spun and my stomach rebelled, but I swallowed and kept my nerves down. I brandished the stone, lifting it up from under my tunic with a little smile. "If this can do you harm, then you'd better stay away. You can't stop me from leaving!"
The demon snarled, suddenly dropping the friendly and fake facade of concern and backed away, crowding itself against the bed where I had been. I ignored him and walked to the window, peering out. Damn. It was still daytime. And there was a lot of movement going on outside my door.
I tentatively went to my bedroom door and opened it, peering outside. The marble floor was cold under my bare feet. I collected my boots from next to the door and put them on, ducking back when suddenly a flying demon nearly clipped my head with a wingtip and sailed on down the hallways, shrieking orders to the nearest individual.
"Come with me," I commanded the demon guard, who looked like a sort of gazelle with electricity crackling from its two giant spindle-like hands. "And don't you say a word, or I'll cram this jewel right down your bloody throat." My voice was even and calm, as though I truly meant it. But in truth the last thing I wanted was to get near those teeth.
"If anyone asks, tell them you're escorting me to the Hylden Lord," I said, and nudged him along, waving the sphere at his face. "Go on!"
I can't say I didn't enjoy ordering him around. The demon shivered with every step, hating his plight, hating the torment that would come when his Master knew he had been so helpless. And useless. I bent my head toward him and whispered, "Ask the one coming down the hall what's causing all this commotion."
He did, and as they exchanged words, their voices twisted and warped beyond most hope of understanding, and without even being asked my captive said, "He says that the girl has escaped and Kain is looking for her... and you."
"Did he say where they were going?"
"They don't know yet."
"Then let us find them, my ugly friend."
--Kain--
I stumbled upon the wretched scene as if I had only just met her before. She was crippled against a wall in the shadows away from the fading daylight. Her escape had taken her straight into the arms of pain, and I had only just arrived.
I grabbed her gently, adjusting her so that she was safely out of harm's way. She seized my arm, gasping like a drowning woman, her white teeth pale and fragile-looking in the dimming glare of the sun. I only stared helplessly as she flailed until she grew still. Hatefully still. I gripped her tighter in hopes that the pain might bring her back. To no avail, she lay as still as death, what seemed as lifeless as trees. I had no more blood to give to her now, and to do so would merely end us both.
I hate known hatred before. When Umah had betrayed me, I hadn't the heart to forgive her. I never had the heart for anything other than trying do to things right. What the Fates demanded of me, I didn't know. But I wanted it so badly to let me keep her by my side... and then she was gone.
I looked up, blinded by tears. There were demons about, although none of them touched me and I was too broken to be perplexed.
Then I turned my head; I saw him. There among the broken balconies of the Aerie in the daylight, Torrent was standing with a dead demon vanishing by his side. The demon crumbled into a mystified dust beside him, and Torrent held the Nexus Stone in his hand. He looked white as a sheet and hardly dared to move... but I knew what I wanted now. I had already painted such a picture in my mind as how this weak little thorn in my side was going to meet his death.
"You won't forgive me?" the boy said in a heavily weary voice.
My lips pulled back slightly in a pleased snarl. "Never." A wordless growl escaped me, and I had barely begun to process my action when I executed it. The Reaver cut into Torrent's body, and the resistance I met was only small when he collapsed in two pieces, rightly eviscerated. One half fell to the right; the other fell to the left. The life barely emptied from his eyes when he registered what I had done, and I caught the Nexus Stone from his hands when he collapsed.
I was a merciless, angry and unforgiving bastard. At one point my mere existence was quite unforgivable. But I was alive now, and Amanda wasn't, and I felt the irrepressible desire to hurt something badly.
I crouched, drinking from the body as I delivered the Reaver into his chest. The spirit still lingered in the body even though it had failed, and the blade sucked up the soul greedily, angrily as if siphoning it had not sated its rage. I drank from the corpse until it was white as paper, dead as dirt. Dead as love in the winter.
I failed Raziel.
Janos Audron's approach registered in my mind. I turned swiftly to face him, the leather attached to the Nexus Stone wrapped around my wrist as the stone dangled from my hand. Raziel, I'm so sorry. The blade was whirling and spitting with hunger. But instead of the Hylden Lord I saw the vampire, helplessly holding his hands out beseechingly.
"Forgive me, Chosen One," he said hoarsely. "I could do nothing to stop him." His wings drooped, morose. Forlornly, he looked away and closed his eyes, folding his hands inside the sleeves of his long jacket.
"Don't...Don't give me your excuses," I replied brokenly, and lunged toward him. I missed purposefully but he didn't move or bat an eye-lash. "Come here so I can finally kill you and put you down like the contemptible doddering fool you are!"
"Time is short!" Janos snapped, stepping away as I drew close, the Nexus Stone gleaming. "You may yet save her soul!" The ancient vampire pressed a hand against his chest, knowing full well that his heart was the centerpiece of his existence.
"Where is the Hylden Lord?" I pressed my hand against my forehead, staring at the darkness there. Then I sheathed the Reaver for one last time before picking my daughter from the ground and carrying her into the shadows again, her skin still smoldering terribly. The ancient vampire trailed behind carefully, dragging his feet miserably as if he had done this terrible wrong.
"Hiding," Janos growled, his step growing stiff and troubled. "Under these circumstances, it would be wise to heed my advice before you kill me."
"How can I save her," I said angrily, "when she's already dead?"
"Then...use this." Then, to my blank-faced horror, he plunged his hand through his chest cavity, through his shirt and worked his fingers around his beating, unholy heart. He doubled over in agony, growling with pain before twisting his hand free with a part of his heart. It wriggled in his hands in an effort to beat, missing its essential half. Without hesitation he went to Amanda who lay now on the floor. He tore at her chest, pushed it inside where it seemed to do nothing but glow briefly and then fade.
I seized Janos as he rubbed his hands clean of his own blood. "Will it work?" I demanded angrily. Janos shied away as far as he could from me and the Nexus Stone.
"I do hope so, Kain," he replied, the use of my name striking me as somehow very odd. From these very lips I had heard 'vampire filth' so many times it didn't seem right to hear him call me for once by my name.
"Will it still beat when you die?" I said quietly.
"My never stop beating... perhaps I should have given all of it. Then finally you may kill us both and bring peace to us at last," Janos murmured disconsolately. I sneered, uncaring.
"Don't worry. I have not quite finished what I've started here. Look at me, Janos - are you prepared to die?"
"It is the least I can do for my kind. My time is done. Though I have lived a long time, and will miss the world, I must leave it now. Do your worst, Kain." Janos smiled slightly, folding his hands behind his back and puffing out his chest proudly.
"My intention was the opposite - My very best." With that, I raised the Reaver again, which I thought screamed with righteous delight...
Author's Notes: I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen now.. but I'll continue writing anyway. Because honestly, the best things happen when you just don't ask question and just write...
