Disclaimer : I deserve to be beat with a stick for my failure to keep up new chapters. I know I shouldn't make excuses because it won't make things better. I think I'm trying to do too much. Currently I'm writing two serious books, two serious fanfictions, two mini-series, and one comedy. I should cut back. Who am I kidding, I can't cut back, I'd be letting everyone down even more. (sobs in defeat) I can't win and I can't buy LOK! Waaaa!

Cold Fire Phantoms

By Semdai Bloodquill

Chapter Five : Abomination

" I was banished," Luciel said nonchalantly. The old vampiress reached up and undid her long, gray-streaked black hair as she spoke. " I was never one for clerical beliefs, least of all those of a giant squid." Kain snickered at her remark. " Of course, it wasn't until just recently that I learned what it was my kin were worshipping. Still, the words of the Oracle, as he called himself then, didn't sit well with me."

" Is that the only reason you were banished? As a heretic?" Kain asked, putting down the fine glass goblet Luciel had provided him with, though not for any distaste for the fine vintage it contained.

The ancient vampiress made her home in the central temple of Uschtenheim. Kain couldn't help but snicker at the irony of her choice of residence. A vampire heretic living in an abandoned Sarafan temple.

" And because I'm something of a paradox," Luciel continued. " I was born dead. No pulse. No breath. Nothing. My twin brother was perfectly fine and healthy, but there was no life in me. One of the theories presented later was that I had been dead a day or two at the most, but it doesn't matter. I was still dead."

" Yet you stand and speak before me now," Kain interjected.

" No one has been able to explain what happened," Luciel offered. " I've been told that a fierce storm was raging when my brother and I were born, and at the climax of that storm when the thunder was loudest, I started screaming."

" That must have been amazing to see," Kain remarked.

" 'Hand of God himself,'" Luciel sneered distastefully.

" So first you were a divine rescue and then a heretic?" Kain furrowed his eyebrows.

" I am able to see things that no one else could see. Perhaps it was my time in the spectral world. Maybe I always had it. I don't know," Luciel shook her hair out.

Kain was surprised. Luciel must have been thousands of years old, but there wasn't as much gray in her ebony curls as he had thought. Her hair was thick and wavy from being braided for so long. He almost found her strangely attractive.

" Raziel said something to me before the sword consumed him," Kain remembered. " Something about the true purpose of the Soul Reaver."

Luciel had made her way to one of the shattered windows and was gazing down on the ruined city. " The sword was forged for the vampires' savior. For you it seems. But while only you can wield the sword," here she turned and faced Kain straight on, " only with your son can you see the true enemy."

And now you will see the true enemy...

" That's what Raziel said just before..." Kain didn't feel the need or desire to finish his sentence. In either case, there would not have been time. Terwaz came charging into the room, panting and out of breath.

" We're under attack!" He had to pause to catch his breath. " A whole score of strange demons are headed this way!"

" Hylden?" Kain asked.

" If they are, their like none I have ever seen," Terwaz replied.

" Gather your brothers," Luciel instructed. Her long talons dug grooves in the stone window sill. " And arm yourselves. If the Hylden have grown so mad that they do not recognize us then we shall be prepared."

" Yes, Mother." Terwaz bowed and ran out.

" What do you mean 'recognize you,'" Kain inquired suspiciously.

Luciel did not answer right away. " I have not the time to tell you. In any case, you will see very soon why they call me a heretic." Luciel left the window and walked to the far wall, on which was mounted a handsome collection of armor and weapons. She donned a pair of supple leather bracers that reached to her elbows and a thick leather sword belt with a matching pair of silver shamshirs.

Luciel also removed from the wall an amulet made of what looked like polished obsidian. She stared at it longingly for a moment before slipping it over her head. " Follow me if you wish." She offered Kain, striding swiftly out the same way Terwaz had gone.

Kain followed her.

Outside, the five brothers were locked in a defiant staring war with a monstrous creature that easily towered over them. Kain only vaguely recognized the monster for the Hylden that it was. It had a long face with evil, red eyes and a pair of wicked horns protruding from the back of its skull. It's inky black skin was cracked and wrinkled around prominent bones and curving claws. Behind him (Kain guessed it was male) a score of demons prowled impatiently waiting to strike. Kain recognized them as the same type of demons he had fought with during his short stay in limbo.

" Tartrezar," Luciel greeted in a sarcastic tone, sauntering right up to the monster staring down her sons. " To what do I owe this unexpected honor?"

" 'Unexpected' if the sun rises in the west," Tartrezar growled. Kain knew his voice instantly, low in volume but mellow of timbre and hinted by a faint hissing.

'You will go mad and you will not know it.'

" You know perfectly well why I have come, vampiress," Tartrezar continued.

" Do I?" Luciel retained her calm as she spoke with the Hylden. " You and the others have been in limbo for untold millennia. Anything can change in such a spans of time, even the deepest of friendships."

" We have not changed our loyalties to our Lord nor have we failed to notice that you did not kill yourself with the rest of your breed," Tartrezar cast a loathing glare at Kain. " The company you keep has not escaped our knowledge either."

" Should I take that to mean that you still want me on your side?" Luciel grinned ever so slyly at Kain.

Tartrezar turned his viscous glare back Luciel. " As far as I am concerned, you have always been an enemy. We might take some pity on your sons, but you I will never see as an ally." The venom in his voice was chilling to all but Luciel herself.

" Crawl back to your master, Tartrezar, and tell him that if he still wants me, I will speak to him and not his impudent, belly-dragging second-in-command," Luciel sneered.

Tartrezar snarled and lunged at Luciel. But before he could get close enough to strike, Rancor leapt forward, his sword drawn, and struck Tartrezar viscously between his horns with the hilt of the blade. The demon staggered under the weight of the blow and was forced down. Enlil also attacked and managed a solid strike with his own sword. Tartrezar was saved, more or less, by his thick armor but Enlil blow still broke his forearm when he used the appendage to block. Shrieking in rage, he turned and vanished in a puff of foul smelling smoke along with his minions.

Rancor and Enlil choked and backed away from the spot. Rancor kept his free hand over his mouth to shield from the smoke. " I always hated him, Mother," the eldest brother stated. " If he dares to show his face here again, I swear I'll kill him without a second thought." Enlil was too busy coughing to say anything.

Kain simply stared hard at Luciel.

The ancient vampiress heaved a heavy sigh. " I can only try to imagine how this must look to you, Kain," she began. " I know I can't ask for your trust anymore than I can beg your indulgence for a while longer."

" Tell me what you are and we'll see where I stand," Kain said firmly.

" What we are, why I'm a heretic, and why I'm still alive. They all have the same answer," Luciel started.

" Obviously you have some relationship with the Hylden Lord," Kain pointed out harshly.

" You could say that," Luciel admitted reluctantly. " The ancient war wasn't fought over just religious differences."

" You were on good terms with the so-called enemy," Kain speculated.

" At least with most of them. Tartrezar never trusted me, even before he went mad and became a monster. No, the other vampires couldn't stand the idea of their precious 'holy child' fraternizing with their rivals."

" It wasn't just any Holy War?" In a way, Kain supposed he already knew the answer to his own question.

" The worst kind of Holy War. When two races are fighting over the same prophet."

" And your sons?" Kain turned his stare at them. Rancor and Enlil met his gaze impassively. Terwaz and Athillo would not look at him directly but they kept their heads up. Zangai's eyes were completely on the ground. After a moment of silence the youngest brother stepped forward.

Without a word, Zangai undid the clasp that held his cloak in place and discarded the black, leather vest that covered his torso. Naked from the waist up, Zangai went down on one knee before Kain and bowed his head.

Kain couldn't help but notice the parallel scars that ran down the length of Zangai's back, from his shoulders to his waist. The marks from the arrows had long since healed and faded but the two lines were plainly visible.

The white skin of the young vampire's back rippled and split suddenly. Wings sprouted out of Zangai's back. One was of black feathers like his mother's, and the other of dark, leathery skin, the like of which Kain had seen on the Hylden, but longer and more elegant.

Kain took a step back out of shock. For a moment his calm faltered and he saw not Zangai kneeling before him, but Raziel with his lieutenant garb and pale, spotted wings. The fault was momentary; though, and it passed as suddenly as it had come. Once again it was Zangai kneeling before him, wings out-stretched, awaiting judgment. No one spoke.

Kain took a moment of silence to think. He had some of his answers. But for all the good they did him, he might as well have never followed Athillo out of the citadel.

" I wish to stay with you a while longer," Kain said suddenly. He didn't know why or what made him say it, but he could not deny that it was true. He did wish to learn more about Luciel and her sons...and perhaps about himself as well. He reached out and touched each of Zangai's wings gently. In another moment of nostalgia, he tried to remember what Raziel's wings had felt like.

" I have no judgment to pass on you, Zangai," Kain said decisively. Zangai met his gaze with a wry smile. Once again, he pulled his wings into his back. He winced slightly, as if the act hurt him, but he bore it silently. Zangai's flesh closed again, leaving only a pair of scars where his wings had been.

Luciel was obviously as surprised as Kain by his request, but she smiled gratefully nonetheless. " I am glad then," she said. Zangai stood and retreated to Athillo's side.

" I have one requirement though," Kain added. He unsheathed the Soul Reaver the held it out, hilt in one hand, tip in the other. " What can you do for Raziel? I tried my hardest to prevent him from entering the sword, but in the end I could not stop it."

" We are far from the end, Kain," Luciel said softly. She touched the sword and instantly a tendril of white fire rushed up her arm. She closed her eyes for a moment, but when they opened again they were not Luciel's eyes but Raziel's.

" You and I are not finished with Fate just yet."

Luciel released the sword, blinked her eyes, and was herself again apparently no worse for the wear. " I think we have yet to see what can be done for your son," she said reassuringly.

To be Continued...

Author's notes : Well, there you have it. The secret is out. Kain can't stop thinking about Raziel. He must be going gay. (gets hit by an inflatable Soul Reaver sword) Oh C'mon! (shouting at the nothingness that threw the sword) You were thinking it too! Well maybe not... but it was still funny!

All joking aside, now you know what Luciel's sons are...or do you? I suppose it' cruel to always beat around the bush like this, but I'm afraid that if I out and just say it 1) you guys will think it's cheesy and leave or 2) you'll take the information and leave. I should look and find out what the scientific name for 'fear-of-your-readers-leaving-phobia' is.

For those of you wondering, Luciel's name when you break down the Latin means 'wings of the dawn' or 'wings of light.' Tartrezar's name is a little more complex. I play DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) and read Forgotten Realms and one of the lower planes is called Tarterus. It's a nasty, icky, limbo-like world full of nasty, icky monsters. I beleive it's featured briefly in The Halfling's Gem by R. A. Salvatore. Tartrezar's name comes from that.

And now to my awesome readers.

To Smoke - To answer your inquiry about the discrepancies in chapter four, yes there were discrepancies. The second one somehow eluded me when I was editing. I had previously fixed the first one but when my computer crashed and I very nearly lost that chapter it failed to recover that part of the editing and it wasn't until you pointed it out that I noticed it. If you go back and look at it now, you will find that I have fixed it up all nice and beautiful just for you.

To Varyssa - I am glad you like my response and I'm glad you approve of Raziel's situation. Sorry about him turning on Kain at the beginning of chapter four, but I can't allow myself to play favorites with the characters. (gets hit with shoe) Oh all right, so I DO play a little favoritism with Athillo and Zangai but that's because I love them! They are some of my most adorable creations ever and I love them. Oh fine I do play favorites. Please forgive me!

To Healer Ariel - You are very welcome for the name meanings. I will continue to provide them for you in the future as well. I think it adds a little more depth to the story when the characters have meaningful names and the readers can relate to them.