Nigel seemed all sorts of excited as he entered the main room where he'd set Cass to eat after letting her sleep for a long time on his couch. He plopped a big giant thick book on the table in front of her. "Lerajie." He pointed to the page it was turned to.
Cass lifted her gaze questioningly, her fork frozen mid-air as he said the name. "Huh?' she said quizzically but then remembered ... he meant Raj. Lowering her fork and gaze simultaneously, she looked over the opened page curiously.
Nigel pointed at those "related" to Lerajie, each in turn, yabbering about this and that. It was a chronology of vampire lines. Then he stopped on Lerajie again. "Lerajie comes from a direct line from Lucifer himself. He's many, many generations along the line ... but he comes from it all the same. This isn't any normal vampire we're dealing with here."
Cassandra followed along with his finger as it pointed out things, glancing up at him as he spoke and then furrowed her eyebrows some at his proclamation. "What do you mean? None of them are normal."
Nigel chuckled and sat beside her, flipping back a few pages to scan the writings then he spoke again. "The Lucifer line is what is considered the 'pure' or 'untainted' line. In other words, those that come from that line may have direct contact with the power Lucifer beholds ... or something along that line."
Cassandra read along with him, stabbing her fork every once in a while at the food on her plate as she let her mind wander to Raj. Maybe that's what she had felt that was different about him. She just didn't know. "Okay, so is this particularly bad or what?"
"I don't know," he said. "You said you felt something about him. What exactly did you feel?"
Cass sighed gently, pushing at the food with her fork before glancing at Nigel. "I have no clue ... this is going to sound weird, I know it is. But I felt something ... good ... about him."
Nigel's brows arched curiously. "Good?" He blinked a bit then looked at the book. "I can't imagine one of Lucifer's line being 'good'."
She shrugged some, knowing how off the wall it sounded but she remembered back to the night they fought and the way that he had stood his ground and wanted to talk to her. "There's something there, Nigel ... I can't put my finger on it, despite his line, as you call it."
"You need to meet him again. Track him ... see what he's up to. You said there was another ... before Lerajie came around. Did you happen to catch a name?"
She thought for a long moment, clearly seeing him in her mind's eye. "I don't think so, no ... but he had this stark white hair pulled back in a braid. Raj said something about them going back some but not in a good way."
Nigel looked back at the book and frowned a bit. He couldn't do much without a name but he'd look into it. He had more than just this book. If they'd gone back, there was probably information about it. He had his work set out for him. "Did you get plenty of rest?"
Cassandra nodded, even though she was lying. She hadn't slept much. Her thoughts were pervaded with this vampire, Raj. "Yeah, it was good, why?"
"No reason," he responded with a smile. "Just looking after you is all. Have to have my slayer in tip top shape."
Cass smiled at him. He was thoughtful. She had to give him that. She was spending more and more time at his place and this library than she was at her own home though honestly, she missed it. She wanted a night to curl up in front of her fireplace again. "It's a lot more work than I originally thought," she admitted, looking at him with a smile
"Yes ... it gets that way. It's a way of life, not just a job." He flipped through a few more pages in the chronology. "I want you to meet Lerajie again somehow."
Cassandra stabbed her salad again, taking a bite before saying, "How am I supposed to do that? I don't even know where he is."
"Well, he has me interested. It could all just be a trap. Tread carefully ... but I want to see what he's all about. I'm not sure how you can meet him. Leave a note someplace maybe?" he grinned teasingly and glanced sideways at her.
Cassandra laughed and then her face suddenly froze. It suddenly came to her. She had seen him once before. That night ... outside of her apartment building; it was him.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
It had been several weeks since Raj had seen the Slayer last. The rumor mills were all sorts of alive with things to say about the girl; she was evil, she was bad, she had to die. Raj had never paid much attention to the rumors. He just tried to keep track of where she prowled and what exactly she hunted but she seemed random. She'd killed one known as Talon ... a semi-important figure. That had sparked all kinds of rumors and stories. One could never tell the truth from the story. Raj had given up. That's why he kept to himself; no connections, nobody to worry about except himself.
He sat in a swing in the middle of a deserted park. Lights from the tennis courts flooded the small playground. The swing squeaked almost irritatingly as he swung back and forth absently, but it was rhythmic and rather soothing. It allowed him to just sit still awhile and not think about anything.
Cassandra had been staying busy in the dark world. She had never realized just how much evil there was out there and it just seemed to keep popping up along the way. Her training was going along at a more accelerated rate than she had ever imagined. Nigel had taught her how to tap into her supernatural type powers and it was overwhelming.
She was starting to develop a sixth sense when it came to slaying and who to go after first. But she knew the more she worked, the more good she did, the more her own life was in jeopardy. She couldn't let her guard down.
Maybe that's why she had not sought out Raj as Nigel had wanted her to do. She didn't want to let her guard down ... And something inside of her said that that was exactly what she tended to do around him. And she didn't understand why. It perplexed Nigel and part of it pissed him off as well ... she could just tell.
