Raziel, although now in a cell, could at least allow himself to sleep more comfortably than he would have had he still been outdoors. It was the best rest he had in a while, and when he did wake up, he still felt groggy. He saw in the cell, through sleep blurred eyes another prisoner. A human woman, who was also resting. Getting up, he decided to give her a closer look.
On closer inspection, Raziel found that it was definitely a human girl. He brushed away some of her hair from her neck, and saw her artery pulsing on her neck, which reminded his body that he hadn't had a decent drink for a long time.
Groggy as he was, he couldn't quite remember why he would be so adverse to vampirism and feeding. Why couldn't he simply throw off all the barriers and fears he kept, and give in to instinct? He was thirsty enough as it was, why not do as his body told him to do?
He glanced at the woman's neck for a moment, before striking it, quick as a snake, and began sucking on her. The woman awoke with a start, and saw what was causing her pain, what was being done to her, and screamed.
Raziel's eyes widened at her screams, which seemed to wake him up.
What am I doing? Raziel thought to himself, alarmed, and pulled away, shocked, disgusted at himself. As soon as he did, he desperately wanted to latch his mouth back onto the woman's neck, which was starting to leak more blood onto her clothes, as the woman stood up, pressed against the cell wall in fear of Raziel.
Raziel stared at the girl, still horrified at what he had done. He pondered; What was he doing? He was supposed to be a sarafan! He was supposed to protect these people! How could he give into the vampires like that?
Then again, the people of today, which he had met, didn't seem to want any of his help or protection. No, they rejected him. After all the heroism, after all he did for humans, eventually all they did was grow to hate them.
Typical.
He remembered the rejection he felt towards humans, with a frown. They didn't want his help? Fine. He didn't owe them anything. Forget being a sarafan. Nobody wanted him as one? Fine. He stared at the cowering woman again, this time with a hungry, predatory look, at the leaking blood on her clothes, her neck, and slowly moved closer as the woman cringed. And he was still thirsty, anyway. He moved closer still, and allowed his mouth to move back onto the woman's neck...
"Am I interrupting anything?"
Raziel spun in surprise, spotting Kain outside of his cage, smirking as he spotted Raziel red handed in the act of voluntarily drinking someone. Shocked and embarrassed, feeling as scum as much as he considered the vampires would be, he pushed the girl away, and backed into another wall, himself. Again, he was shocked at what he was thinking. Become a vampire? And serve this demon? Serve Kain? Moebius' killer? Raziel's lip curled in disgust at what he was about to do. No way was he going to let that filth win! Besides, he was supposed to be the righteous one still. Just because a bunch of humans didn't like him or what he was doing was no reason to give up, tempting as that was, and he still had a responsibility to maintain. Who cared what they thought? HE knew he was doing the right thing. He couldn't give up!
"You." Raziel hissed at Kain.
"Oh, don't stop on my account." Kain commented.
Raziel moved away in a show of his refusal to continue to feed any further.
"There is no shame in it, Raziel. After all, we all do it, being vampires." Raziel frowned at Kain's words. He shoved the mental image of him standing before Kain, with his turned brethren around him chanting 'One of us! One of us! One of us!'
"And besides, it is quite noticeable that you enjoy violence, even from what I heard of your previous life, why deny it?" It was meant to be a rhetorical question, but Raziel answered anyway. "Because what I do is righteous. I've told you enough times already."
"Face the facts, you don't enjoy your job because it's righteous. You just love the slaughter. Like I said before, your righteousness is simply an excuse. BUT..." Kain added before Raziel could open his mouth. "... I happen to know that you'll still like it, without that excuse."
Raziel opened his mouth now, leaving it agape in shock. "You DARE to presume to tell me how I feel?" Raziel yelled, angry and enraged. "You arrogant..."
"Well, I have known 'you' for quite some time..." Kain said thoughtfully.
Raziel ignored Kain's musings. "I am NOT some sort of psychopath!"
Kain turned to him, away from his thoughts, looking at Raziel, and laughed. Raziel backed off, surprised, the surprise eventually turning to insult.
"Hey!"
Kain stopped laughing, yet a smile still crossed his features. He shook his head, glancing at the woman cowering in the corner of Raziel's cell.
"Come now, Raziel. We both kill to survive. My method is just... a little different from yours. In fact, in a way, your goals... the Sarafan's, is the same as the vampires." Kain smiled, "After what you did to the famous Janos Audron, its obvious you don't mind being bloodthirsty."
Big deal. So Raziel had done some things to vampires himself. And he enjoyed it. It was pretty sick doing it to a human, but to a vampire? He could be as sadistic as he wanted, since they were demons, and he was allowed to despise them, while caring for the circle of nine, and humankind. Besides the vampires threatened the circle's existence, and part of that satisfaction was from the righteousness he felt by protecting humanity. He didn't want any evil on them such as that that the vampires might give.
But then, what was he doing just moments ago?
Raziel scolded himself. He had slipped badly that time. He had to get out of there! The vampires weren't going to give him a choice. Either he was going to become a vampire... or he was going to become a vampire.
Raziel sat back down, covering his head with his arms, trying to come up with a plan, trying to concentrate by shutting off the outside world, shutting off the smells of the crying woman not too far away, still alive at the moment despite being bitten. Raziel tried to ignore the screaming desire to go back after her, which, though he tried, couldn't brush out of his mind.
He felt so... wrong!
"So, what ARE we going to do now?" A Razielhim asked, sitting cross-legged again, running his finger around a glass rim with the drink he had.
"All we need to do is wait for our Lord to come back, yes?" Kat replied, bored, flipping through a book.
"Yeah, but how long would that take?"
"As long as required." Kat replied.
"Look, why don't we go hunt? It's about time we do." Matt suggested.
"I'm so used to having a leader around. We need one." Vosa said, ignoring Matt.
"If worst comes to worst, we could always go under the leadership of one of the other clan leaders. Or Kain himself." Kat noted idly.
"Which one?" The other Razielhim asked idly, his finger now making the glass hum.
"Well, it is Dumah's fault that all of this started." Matt pointed out.
"Might as well go to him, in that case." Kat said idly, closing the book.
"Well, we'll figure it out when the need arises. But for now, I need to take my leave..." Matt explained. The other Razielhim nodded absently and he left. He didn't go far when he ran into Rouge.
"Hello...Rouge! We've been wondering were you've been."
Vaguely nodded at him in greeting. "Going hunting?" She didn't wait for a response. "I'll join you."
"Fine." Matt shrugged. He looked back at the group his kin was sitting in, with one or two Razielhim on guard.
"He's not coming back." Rouge stated flatly, turning to lead the way out.
Matt ignored her, the silence indicating his belief that she was wrong. "Have any of you even SPOKEN with him?" She continued.
"Well, no..." Matt shrugged again.
Rouge frowned. "Our Lord Raziel might as well be gone, now. He has been changed into some... some. Sort of..."
"Human?" Matt offered.
Rouge stopped complaining, silent at the thought.
"I've seen humans. We live off of them, for crying out loud. Whatever Raziel was before, he's worse. And besides, many a human eventually got used to what they have become..."
"But not Raziel?" Matt asked.
"No." Rouge shook her head. The two passed the dungeons, on their way out of vampire territory. They weren't really that close, but sound carried well, at least for vampires and their superior hearing abilities.
"And I REALLY don't know what Lord Kain is up to. That 'human' prey will never change. Let's face it, he'll never really be one of us...'
Raziel was sitting with his knees drawn up within his cage, not really asleep, yet not all that lively, either. He looked up when he heard voices, passing outside of the walls.
"Let's face it, he'll never really be one of us..."
Raziel narrowed his yellow eyes. They were obviously talking about him, yes. Yet somehow, the word insulted him. He shook it off. Of course he couldn't become like one of those foul beings, why would he want to? Let them think that... maybe they'll give up trying to change him and leave him alone for once.
"He'll never really be one of us..."
...Like being what he was, even a human, was a lesser being.
Raziel shook it off, deciding to contemplate the thought for another time. Besides, he didn't care how superior the vampires thought of themselves. He knew the humans were the better. And there was no way he would want to fit in among the vampires, anyway. He shuddered at the thought. He then turned back to the woman whom he was caged with, still lying in the corner. He thought that maybe he could try talking to his cellmate. He walked over to her, and nudged her.
The girl didn't move.
Raziel strained his ears for sounds of life. A breath... a heartbeat. Anything. But he could tell, with his senses, that the girl was dead. By the look of things, her bite was left untreated, and the woman had already lost too much blood. Raziel stared at the dead woman. He was responsible for this person's death, he knew. But he had killed beings, including humans, in the past. It was necessary, considering how some where actually traitors to their own kind. But this woman was just a bystander... An innocent.
Never again. He promised himself. Remembering what had happen to the pillar guardians, particularly his mentor, Mobius. From now on, he would remember them, so that he would not fall prey to his vampirism ever again. He then began concentrating on getting out of the cell. Then he could take revenge on all of the vampires of this age, and there would be no more deaths. But he would still need help in doing so.
One step at a time, Raziel. He thought to himself.
He looked at the lock that held the cell shut, and worked at finding a way to unlock it...
It wasn't long though until he succeeded, and made a run for it. This time, however, he was going to stay free...
Well, that's that. I got rid of the bits I hated the most, but I still am not all that fond of this fic. Plus it was getting repetitive anyway. I am however continuing this story in an offshoot. See "Hylden havoc" For that. And it's going to be going in a totally different direction from where I was going in this story, at least. I am hoping it to be less silly and more of an action/ adventure story. If anyone wants to add anything about what else I should have cut, or wanting to know about things I had cut before I even posted some chapters, feel free to do so. This fic needs critism. Heck, I'm tempted to flame it myself. :p
