Rather short chapter here, but it happens. Ready to 'meet' villain #2??



Kurtis had numbly disposed of the body in Emily's room, burying him in a ditch far from the Croft Manor. By midnight, he was exhausted. He slumped over the chair in the living room, leaning into his hands and drawing in a deep breath. He heard footsteps, and looked up to see Lara approaching him, deep in contemplation with her arms folded over her chest. She sighed, seating herself across from Kurtis in the opposite armchair. "I've confirmed the flight for all of us to leave tomorrow afternoon at noon," she said softly. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"Garin said there is plenty of room for the five of us in his home in Amiens," Kurtis told her.

Lara glanced back in the direction of the tech room, as if she could see Emily sleeping from there. She silently drew in a deep breath, staring in the direction of her daughter.

"She'll be fine, Lara," Kurtis said to her.

Lara glanced up at him, anger etching into her eyes. "Fine?" she asked. "Fine, when one of Karel's loyal followers has come to kidnap her? What about when Karel comes for her? Will she be fine then?"

"Take it easy," he said.

"I can't take it easy," she said. "I'm not like you. I can't just pretend everything is going to be okay. I see things for what they are."

"No," he said, standing. "You see them for what you're afraid they are."

"So I shouldn't prepare myself for the worst?" she asked, rising to challenge him. "If that's the case, we might as well just stay here."

"That's not what I said," he argued. "You need to realize that Emily is in our care. As long as she's with us, she'll be safe."

"Don't feed me your lines of sentimental rubbish," she demanded. "If it were that easy, we'd already have world peace."

"Don't act like you don't believe it, Lara," he argued. "You know that as long as the two of us are looking after her, she'll be okay."

"No, no one will be okay," she argued. "Not against Karel."

"That's why we're going to stop him."

"This time," Lara said sarcastically. "What about next time?"

Kurtis knew that to some extent, she was right. Karel seemed to be undefeatable, like there was no end to him. For once, he was stumped. Lara turned away, heading up the stairs, likely to pack some clothes for the next day's departure. He glanced in the direction of the tech room, then sighed, heading in its direction. Zip was still in there, awake, and keeping a close eye on the security feeds. Kurtis leaned against the desk, watching the cameras as he folded his arms over his chest. "You have cameras hooked up to every place in this mansion?" he asked.

"Top of the line," Zip responded.

"Yeah," Kurtis agreed dryly. "Against mortal enemies."

"What could Karel possibly want this time?" Zip demanded. "If the portal was left open, then he's no doubt got enough space to run around and wreak havoc. What's he doing here, looking for you guys?"

"Searching for revenge," Kurtis speculated. "That's my guess, anyway. It makes the most sense."

"But there's got to be another reason," Zip argued. "If Karel wanted to kill you guys, he'd do it in an instant. There must be some other motive behind all of this…"

Kurtis hadn't thought of this, except in a passive manner. The man upstairs had said something about the "New Age" and becoming slaves. Was Karel up to no good as usual? What if he was picking up his old project of reviving the Nephilim? Then, Kurtis glanced over at Emily, asleep on the couch. What did they want with her? Obviously, the man could've easily killed her before Kurtis and Lara had even reached her room – a thought which sent chills up his spine – but why didn't he, thankfully enough? With that thought in mind, Kurtis knew they would have to look after Emily even more. "The fact is, we're obviously not safe here," Kurtis said, interrupting his own thoughts.

"Yeah, that's a given," Zip agreed.

Kurtis continued to let the thoughts bounce around in his mind as he seated himself behind the table. They had destroyed the Sleeper back in Prague. There couldn't possibly be more Nephilim – could there?

Then he remembered. It was the man in the sanitarium that Kurtis had spoken with. "Four days on the road from Turkey," he'd said. Kurtis had naively assumed he'd been referring to the Sleeper, which was the most logical assumption, but what if he hadn't been? What if there were more Nephilim housed somewhere in Cappadocia?

Kurtis immediately rose and headed up the stairs towards the library. The fire was still going once he entered, and he startled Alister, who was pondering over a book at his desk. Kurtis brushed past his comrade and headed towards one of the shelves, panning over the books listed under 'N'. He found an encyclopedia listed from Na to Ni. He quickly flipped through the pages until he found 'Nephilim'. Angel hybrids…blah blah blah, Kurtis already knew all the basic facts. There was nothing there that any average person couldn't find without doing a little research.

Kurtis sighed quietly, flipping through the pages. He flipped to the back of the book, but just as he prepared to close it shut and return it to the shelf, he caught the very faint engraving on the final page against the book's back with a Lux Veritatis glyph on it. His fingers faintly fell over the marking, then he reached towards the corners and began to pull the page away. He tore it back until he revealed a small, folded white paper. He unfolded the paper and began to look it over. At the top of the page, the number was listed 68, as though the page had been torn out and hidden somewhere. Kurtis flipped back through the book – page 68 was intact, though it was nothing but rambling about the Nephilim, things he already knew.

Kurtis skimmed over the page, reading the words in his mind. Then, it stuck out to him like a sore thumb. He immediately walked over to Alister, dropping the open book and torn page before him. "The Lost Knight," he pointed out. "Also known as the Black Angel."

Alister's eyebrows knit into confusion as he leaned forward to read what Kurtis was talking about. "What about it?" he asked.

"When I was in Prague," he began, "I ran into one of the psych patients in the sanitarium. He said something about a 'Black Angel'. I thought he was talking about the Sleeper or the Proto, but then I remembered my father telling me one time about the Lost Knight."

"What is this Lost Knight?" Alister asked.

"He was the first of the Lux Veritatis, even before my father, but he was also half Nephilim," he explained. "Legend holds that if he's revived, he'd be the most powerful psychic alive."

"Are you sure about that?" Alister asked nervously. "Are you sure he wouldn't just then...try to kill everyone?"

"He's half Lux knight," Kurtis repeated. "If we reach him first, he'll become our best friend, and Karel won't stand a chance. If Karel reaches him, though…"

"Right, I understand," Alister gulped. "So where is this Lost Knight?"

"My guess? Cappadocia, Turkey," he said.

"But that's your guess?"

"Based on what my father's told me, and what the guy in the sanitarium told me, yes."

Alister sighed. "Well, it's worth a shot, I suppose."

"Now I just have to figure out how to wake him," Kurtis sighed, closing the book, but marking the page with the loose page.

"But this is just an old wives' tale of the Lux Veritatis, right?" Alister asked.

"Half of the things we come across are nothing more than that," Kurtis pointed out.

"Right," Alister sighed. "Well, Lara should be thrilled to hear all this."

"She'll just panic even more," Kurtis muttered.

Alister looked up at him. "You're not going to tell her?"

"Not yet," Kurtis said. "And you'd better not either."

"Of course not," Alister said slowly. "I just don't understand…?"

"Just trust me," Kurtis said. "I've got her best interest at heart."

Kurtis scooped the book up and headed down the hallway, trying to decide what to do next. He certainly wasn't going to say anything to Lara. She would lose it, and put Emily on lockdown even more. Besides that, this was his job to handle. For once, he wanted to be the one running things. Lara would try to take over if she knew what was going on – like she always did.

Kurtis closed the hallway door, and startled when he came face-to-face with Lara. He expected her to start bitching – for whatever reason – but instead, she looked almost guilty. She drew in a silent breath. "I'm sorry for…going off on you," she said. "I understand what you're trying to say, I'm just…" She sighed.

"Scared," he finished. "I know."

"Right," she said. "So, that's…that's what's going on with that," she said slowly.

"It's alright," he assured her.

She cleared her throat, glancing down at the book in his hand. "What's that?" she asked.

Shit, he thought. "Oh, nothing," he said passively. "Just doing some research on the Nephilim."

"Did you learn anything?" she asked quickly.

He shook his head. "Nothing new," he lied.

She eyed him suspiciously, as if she didn't believe him. He knew she could easily see right through him – if he let her. He could play the mind tricks, too. He offered a soft smile, then brushed past her, thankful she'd not prodded further. It'll be good to get out of here, Kurtis sighed.


Well, there you have it. The Black Angel. Remember that unidentified character from AOD? Well, I brought him back. Guys...if I had psychic powers too, I'd be a pyro all the way.

nemesis: Lol, I don't think Kurtis was really aware of the fact that he left the portal open...poor guy. He can't catch a break.

OveractiveImaginer: YES! I am in love with John Allerdyce aka Pyro. He's sooo amazing XD

trfanfrombeg: Eh, I just didn't want to make the portal be in Madagascar, just cuz that would be too easy. So I changed locations to Maldives, haha.

Alright everyone...I'll catch you on Saturday! Peace out.