Raziel sat, still staring at those horrid, cloven hands. The hands of a vampire. He tried not to panic, tried to convince himself that this wasn't real. That it was just some nightmare. But he could feel the bed beneath him. He could feel the thirst for blood he now felt.
It was real.
He was back in the room he had woken up in. Fortunately, this time, he was left alone, away from the other vampires. He was glad. It sickened him to have the filthy demons move around him, treating him like their kin. He didn't want to be associated with them. He was a Sarafan. He had dedicated his life to getting rid of their scum. But now...
He wondered how had it happened? All he could remember was retreating from the fiend Janos Audron's lair, as it crumbled to pieces, the vampire dead. He had enjoyed killing him, and felt the fiend had deserved it. He had figured that would rid the world of their wretched plague. But then that blue creature turned up. He had ran back to sanctuary, with the fiend's sword. He had placed the sword on a table after he gave the heart to Malek and Moebius. Just after he let it go... then he blacked out. Maybe his transformation had something to do with that sword? Or maybe it was that haunting, blue creature. Or was it that vampire girl he saw when he had just woken up?
Either way, he was now faced with this major dilemma. Everything he stood against, he now was. Everything he worked for, removing the world of vampires... Turned into a failure. He had to rid the world of Vampires. They were subhuman parasites, demons, and if allowed to go on living, would turn everything as evil as they were. But now vampires now ruled Nosgoth. And he was one of them. They had made him as parasitic as they were. Now he was the evil one.
He looked back down at those blasted hands of his. He couldn't bear it any more. He just couldn't face this new reality. A wave of nausea swept through Raziel's stomach. He had become the enemy. He had betrayed everything he ever was...
He just couldn't take it.
He spotted a decorative-looking pike on the wall nearby. He moved over to it and pulled it off of the wall.
Well, Raziel thought, not really thinking clearly. Considering that I've dedicated my life to ridding the world of vampires, I guess it's time to dedicate my death to the same cause.
With that said, he plunged the pike into his heart, ready to die a martyr...
Kain is deified.
The clans tell tales of Him.
The pillars stood, barely. Blackened by the corruption that still lingered, apparently due to Kain's refusal to sacrifice himself. He sat before the shortened pillar of balance, eyeing his audience. Turel stood ready as he always did. Zephon seemed to be more sullen and silent than usual, but Kain paid him little heed. Melchiah wasn't present, of course, as he was currently undergoing the state of change he recently went through, gaining the ability to phase through walls and such...
Few know the truth.
He was mortal once.
As were we all...
Kain eyed the main entrance to the sanctuary. He had expected Raziel to turn up, but he didn't seem to be coming. The gates remained shut. A few tumbleweeds blew by almost as if to emphasize the point that nothing else would enter. Shaking his head at his unexplained absence, he decided to tell his vampiric sons what he called them here for. It was mostly general information and formalities. The stuff you had to discuss, being the leader, and so forth.
Suddenly the gate opened. All heads turned, expecting a tardy Raziel to turn up.
But no. Instead, a pair of Razielhim female nervously entered the gate.
"Yes." Kain snarled. "What do you want? And where is your maker, Raziel?"
"Raziel. Um... well, see... It's like this..." The Razielhim began nervously, kneeling before the group. "We came to explain, that he... wasn't coming..." Rouge really hadn't met Kain many times before, and it made her as nervous as hell to go up to him just to explain one little fact. Even with Vosa backing her up, who at least had seen Kain several more times than her. Hell, even Lord Raziel, when in his right mind, seemed to fear Kain to some extent.
"Yes?" Kain said, his face frowning, his voice at least attempting to show patience. "And why, pray tell, is that?"
"Raziel got injured on the head earlier. I believe it gave him amnesia or something, because he has not moved from his rest room, and he's rocking back and forth, on his bed, and he keeps on saying, 'I'm not a vampire, I'm not a vampire.'" Vosa explained, retaining much more of her dignity than Rouge did.
"What?" Kain raised what passed for an eyebrow.
"Raziel has amnesia..." Rouge started again.
"I know." Kain sighed, waving his hand in a 'forget it' gesture. "Now, how did Raziel get injured in such a fashion?"
Rouge nervously shot a glance at Dumah, who looked guiltily away. "Lord Dumah was sparring with Lord Raziel when he accidentally injured him, Sire."
"Hmmmm." Kain moved towards Dumah, who continued facing away, almost defiantly, not wanting to look at the approaching Kain.
"Is this true, Dumah?"
Dumah paused before facing his master. "Yes." He admitted. He glanced away defiantly again as Kain glared at Dumah, his irritated expression telling all; 'I'll deal with you later.' Kain turned back to the pair of Razielhim. "Very well. I will see to Raziel at the end of this assembly." He gestured his hand in a 'go away' gesture. The two Razielhim seemed thankful to be gone. Kain brought his hand to his chin in thought, smirking. This was going to be interesting...
Rouge knew she had been warned by her Lord not to take up human habits, but the half drunk-flask of brandy that one Razielhim brought back from the battlefield earlier to share didn't seem to be all that bad. If anything, it was the one thing that was cheering her up. Besides, it was a long time since she had enjoyed something that didn't have the taste of blood. Sitting on the steps of the Razielhim's clan sanctuary, she glanced at the door where her Lord's restroom lay behind, a pair of her clan guarding the door. But it wasn't to protect him from invaders. Raziel never needed such protection. This time, it was to protect Raziel from himself. Rouge buried her face in her arms, her mind becoming more and more groggy, which she blamed on the situation rather than the brandy.
Why did this have to happen? She thought to herself. She needed a competent and able leader. And Raziel had been that, until Dumah...
It was all Dumah's fault, she finally concluded, before her head sank further down as the brandy took its toll on her body, and Rouge groaned in defeat. She sat bolt upright when a flash of light announced Kain's arrival, and she ducked away behind a pillar to watch the Razielhim by the door let him in, Turel following, who had apparently walked here, and was carrying something. Narrowing her eyes, she watched with interest.
Kain entered outside of Raziel's rest room. He could have transported himself right inside, but he had preferred the formality of using the door first. The Razielhim stepped aside and let him through, and Kain indicated that Turel should follow. He stopped short when he saw Raziel's once proud figure, laying prone on his bed, a pike running through his chest; A fatal blow for most vampires. Kain's eyes widened in surprise, he should have known the Safaran would do something like this. Raziel was loosing it enough, if what his clan told him was true. Shaking his head at the patheticness of it all, he grabbed the pike Raziel had attempted to commit suicide with, and yanked it out. The wound on Raziel chest began to heal almost immediately. But as Raziel began to revive, Kain noticed he still wasn't in good shape. His ribs stuck out from his chest, indicating a lack of nutrition which vampires needed. His shoulder-cape with his clan's insignia had fallen to the ground, dirtied as it had been trampled on. Raziel had an overall disheveled appearance. He woke up, surprised, and glanced down at his chest, seeing nothing but a small scar.
"So, I'm alive again." Raziel stated simply. Kain swapped the pike for the bound and gagged man Turel held. "Why did you do that?" Kain demanded of Raziel.
"Better to die again than be a vampire." Raziel hissed venomously. "I'd rather stay dead than to become this filth!"
"Leave us." Kain ordered Turel. Turel nodded, and left, closing the door, shutting the two off from the outside world. Kain turned back to Raziel, glancing again at his disheveled form before tossing him the trussed up human, who slumped on the floor before Raziel, defeated and scared.
"You are thirsty. Drink."
Raziel saw the human. He was indeed thirsty. But he refused to be anything like one of them.
"...I'd rather starve than be a vampire!" Raziel repeated, saying it louder for emphasis.
"Some of us have survived the experience." Kain sneered. "Well now, Sarafan Raziel... That's who you are, isn't it?" Kain asked. Raziel nodded, glaring at Kain. "Oh, I do wish I could do something to change such a wretched attitude towards vampires. What is it about you and your fanaticism?"
"It's none of you're concern, vampire." Raziel said icily. "And you're the last creature I'd tell, in any case."
"Of course." Kain mused. "But seeing how you're currently my first born Lieutenant, I do believe it is my concern."
"YOUR LIEUTENANT?" Raziel screamed incredulously. "I do not serve demons. I burn them. There's no chance in hell that I'll be your lieutenant!"
"Really now, I'm quite sure that sharing my kingdom is hardly as bad as you make it out to be..." Kain smiled coolly. Raziel stiffened.
"... In fact, I very much remember you enjoying it until you regained these memories of yours."
Raziels' eyes narrowed dangerously, realizing that this creature before him was the one who had converted him, which pissed him off to no end. "You dare..." Incensed, he turned, and using those damned claws of his, aimed to rake them across Kain's face. Kain smirked, and easily blocked the blow, and caught Raziel by the neck, throwing him down to the floor next to the bound up human. Raziel was close enough now to smell the human's blood rushing through his veins...
"I'd much prefer your cooperation. It'd make it easier for us both. But if you don't..."
"You'll what?" Raziel sneered.
"Let's just say, I have some better methods of getting some obedience." Raziel didn't need to ask what he was getting at. He knew the vampire before him was threatening him with either torture or death.
"Of course a vile creature such as yourself would do that to your own kind." Raziel stated.
"Usually I reserve that fate for traitors. And seeing as how you're now betraying me..."
"I was never loyal to you in the first place."
"But my memory serves me otherwise."
Raziel shook his head. The fiend had to be lying. Raziel knew himself. He wouldn't ally himself with these demons. He just wouldn't...
But now he was a vampire...
Raziel glanced at the human, shaking nearby. His heart pumping blood furiously. Raziel wished he would stop. The sound was nearly driving him insane.
Kain grinned wickedly. "You didn't mind your life as a vampire at all."
"I don't care what I might of thought before. I don't think it now. You creatures are nothing but fiends. You all deserve to die. I will not have any part of this!" Raziel turned away, arms folded over his chest in stubbornly.
"We all deserve death? What gave you that assumption?"
"For one, you kill humans just to survive." Raziel spat. "Your race is sick and evil!"
"And you kill sheep and cows and fowl to eat. Why don't you ask them what they think of humans?"
"Sheep don't talk and think and feel..."
"But vampires do. And you killed a good deal of them, too." Kain said simply. "Besides, what are you going to do, when your stomach hungers for human blood? Starve? Do you really think you could resist that hunger?" Kain asked, looking directly into Raziel's eyes. He then nudged the bound up human next to Raziel, knocking him down to lie on the floor between them.
Raziel couldn't fight it anymore. Kain was right. He couldn't resist his thirst for blood any longer. He had gone for too long without sustenance. The man's heartbeat was like a jackhammer in his head. Raziel relented and began to bare his teeth.
"Damn you." Raziel hissed, before bringing his head down to bite the helpless human in the neck, drawing blood.
"I rest my case." Kain smiled, satisfied, and walked out of Raziel's room, leaving Raziel gorging on the prey before him.
Rouge looked out from behind the pillar she was hiding behind. She did not catch all of it, but then from where she was, with her good hearing as a vampire, she caught enough of it to put two and two together. Chugging the remaining brandy in her flask, and tossing the container away, she decided to keep the information to herself. Still, she could use it...
