Vampyr Rising

Chapter 3: His Soul Part 1: Lost

Cain stood on the edge of the cliff at the End watching as the sun fell behind the horizon of the water, his black shadowy cloak billowing out around him in the sharp wind.
A flutter of wings was all that alerted him before a gentle weight landed on his shoulder.
Turning to the raven he looked at her with what could only akin to hopefulness.
"I hope this works Colette"
The raven only cawed in response.
"I know I was just getting to that. I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I claim to do so. I do own any noncanon characters and ideas."
As he finished up he turned back to the horizon just in time to see a flash of green light up the sky. A happy smile crossed his features as he realized that their journey had been successful.

A/n: Thanks to my beta McGurrin. Also thanks to all those who reviewed, and I hope that this is some of the expansion that some of you were asking for.

"They say that the soul is a fickle thing, yet it contains the very thing that drives us for a sense of being. For him, that sense is her and he will not stop until it has been quenched. That cross is a constant reminder that he hasn't fulfilled his promise yet." – Vampyr Nicole Valentine when asked about Raphael's cross

-Vampyr Rising-

THEN:

"How did you survive those gashes?"

Fleur looked up sharply into the face of her mother and quickly snapped her head towards Raphael. Raphael looked down at her worried face and softly stroked her cheek and whispered quietly so only she would hear.

"It'll be ok, just tell her"

Fleur nodded slowly and looked towards the pensive face of her mother.

"It's because…because I was turned." She said almost inaudibly.

"WHAT!"

NOW:

Fleur rocked back from the sheer force of her mother's yell. Apolline jumped to her feet and in her rage her veela aura was completely unsuppressed, and if it there were any normal males in the room, they would have fallen to their knees at the aura of beautiful rage before them. As it were, the only males in the room was her husband, and the vampyr lord who's own aura dampened the effects of the veela's to the point that he could overwhelm it if he wished too.

"What where you turned into?" Apolline visibly snarled out.

"A vampyr" came the meek reply from Fleur after a quick glance to Raphael, who sat calmly next to her.

"A VAMPIRE!"she raged "Do you understand what you have just done to this family?"

Sebastian, while visibly shocked at his daughter's change in being status, was equally shocked by his normally calm wife's reaction. Gabrielle did not seem shocked by the revelation; she just looked over at her sister with a pensive look on her face.

"Momma…"

"Fleur!" Apolline interrupted snarling "I can't believe what you have done" as if was Fleur's fault that she had nearly died and had to be turned. "You have become the one thing that deserves to be put down. You can no longer be considered a part…"

"APOLLINE!" Sebastian cut in quickly, before his wife completed her severance of their oldest daughter from the family. "You are over reacting.."

"OVER REACTING? She has just become one of the only things that all veela are taught to fear. I can not stand by as she becomes this thing" she raged, gesturing to Raphael, who was obviously the one who had turned her, seeing as to how he referenced himself as 'Fleur's savior'.

"AND YOU!" she began as she turned towards the young lord "How dare you take my daughter from me and turn her into your vile…."

At this Raphael became enraged. While he was known as a heartless killer, the one thing he valued more than anything was family. To hear this woman wish to cast her oldest daughter from the family simply because she was turned infuriated him.

"QUIET!" Raphael roared as he stood up suddenly. Unleashing his violent and powerful aura, completely smothering the veela's furious allure, he forced Apolline to instantly quiet. With his aura unleashed he seemed to have gained a few inches in height while his bottomless black eyes gained a dark red tint. "YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED!"

Unknown to him small blue licks of flame had begun rising in wisps like smoke in the clenched fists of his hands which hung at his sides. The room had fallen into shocked silence at his roar. Apolline herself seemed to have been snapped from her rage as she looked upon the specter of darkness that had appeared before her. A specter who was visibly trying to calm himself.

Sensing the incoming danger that would possibly be unleashed to wreck havoc on her mother, Fleur grabbed his clenched hand into both of her petite hands, trying to calm him down. What shocked her were the flames that had formed in the small gap between his fingers and palm. Blue flames which she knew only came from one source.

Grabbing his hand was apparently the right thing to do as her presence seemed to instantly calm him down.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Raphael began again in a much more calm voice.

"You are so willing to give up your daughter for the simple fact that she has been turned into something that you have been raised to fear. A fear which is completely unbiased as well as the fact that you didn't think that if I hadn't been there to turn her she would have very well died in that alleyway and you would be without one of your daughters. This way you still have her."

At the conclusion of his small speech Raphael seemed to grow suddenly depressed and without a word he turned and walked outside.

Fleur watched him go sadly, wondering just what was so deeply affecting her new friend. Turning to her mother she saw that Raphael's words seemed to have struck a deep chord within her. Apolline looked genuinely horror struck over what she had done.

"Mama?" she called out tentatively.

"Oh, Fleur I'm so sorry" Apolline sobbed as she embraced her daughter. "All I could think about was that you had become a monster. I didn't even stop to think that you were my daughter."

Fleur said nothing for a moment as she held her distraught mother.

"I'm not exactly what you think I am."

Apolline looked up sharply through her tears "What?"

"I haven't been turned into a vampire. Well not exactly."

"What are you then?" came the curious reply.

"A vampyr"

A shocked gasp came from the direction of her father. Turning towards him Fleur saw that he looked completely shocked.

"A vampyr? As in the Vampyr Nation, vampyr?" he asked weakly.

"Oui, Papa. A vampyr. How do you know of them?" she asked curious as to how he knew of them.

"The Vampyr Nation is one of the most powerful and dangerous groups in the world. From my job in the Ministry I have heard numerous things about their doings in France. They have a network that far encircles the globe." Sebastian stopped for a moment and the blood drained out of his face as he realized something. "What's his name again?"

"Raphael. Why?"

"Because the leader of the Vampyrs is a man by the name of Raphael I think."

"He's the leader of them?" she asked shocked.

"I believe so. Where is he anyway?" he said glancing around.

"He went outside for some reason. I'll go see what happened to him" Fleur said getting up.

"I'll talk to your mother while you do that."

-Vampyr Rising-

As Fleur walked outside she saw a shadowed figure standing a short distance away under the light of the moon.

Coming up beside him she saw that he was fingering a cross on a chain and looking sadly at it.

"Raphael?"

Raphael said nothing as he continued to look at the chain in sorrow.

Fleur placed her hand on his shoulder gently. "What's wrong?"

Raphael continued to look at the cross is sorrow and for a moment she thought that he wouldn't answer, when he began speaking in a soft voice.

"Hearing her speak about just giving you up like that, with no regard as to your future, made me think about what I lost."

"Lost?"

He turned to look at her for a moment showing her the tears that were beginning to form there before turning back to the cross in his hands.

"My sister."

Fleur didn't know what to say at his revelation.

"My sister was the most important thing in the world to me when I lost her a few years ago."

"What happened to her?"

Raphael looked at the cross a last time before tucking it back into his shirt.

"It would be easier if I showed you." He said before turning and looking deeply into her eyes, drawing her into his mind.

-Vampyr Rising-

Raphael's Mind scape

Fleur blinked as she left the living world and appeared in Raphael's mind. The world around her was drastically different from anything she had ever expected a mind's defenses would be.

They had appeared on a desolate shore of what was amidst what could only be described as an apocalypse. An ocean at her back was completely frozen over and looked to extend forever into the distance. Although the ice was nearly 3 feet thick, if one looked close enough they would see spider web cracks beginning to form. Surrounding her were towering skyscrapers making it apparent that they were in some sort of city. A city in the midst of a crisis. Large portions of the buildings were utterly gone and others were engulfed in undying flames and arched to the scorched sky. The some of the buildings were stripped of anything other than metal framework that built them up, while others were still intact yet consumed in flames. Few buildings were untouched by the hellish flames.

The sky itself was another matter. Flames and sparks rained down from the blackened sky like rain, clouds that would normally be only black were a vibrant red orange and gaping holes pierced through the abysmal cloud cover, leaving a view that instead of leading to the heavens, led to what could only be described as hell.

A screech alerted her to the fact that they weren't the only occupants of this dream world. Swooping down around the burning chaos were beings that would normally be described as angels. However these were no normal angels. They were completely black with wicked looking talons on their feet. Their faces were masks of shadow with only soulless white eyes glaring out at her and seemed to draw her in.

"Don't look at them" came a stern warning from her companion, who up until that moment she had forgotten.

"W…what?" she stammered.

"Don't look at them for too long or else you will experience unimaginable pain and be forced out of here."

"W..what are they?" she asked weakly.

"Valkyries. Warrior women who chose who die in battles. They carry their chosen to the afterlife." He said as he began walking through the forsaken streets littered with burned evidence of mankind's presence.

Burned out husks of cars lined the streets among the wreckage of what appeared to have been looters and rioters.

Dutifully Fleur carefully followed her companion who walked without consequence or care through the disaster ridden streets.

"This is the main defenses of my mind" he said as he gestured to the surrounding buildings.

As Fleur glanced around she thought she caught something out of the corner of her eye in the window of one buildings, but when she looked it was gone. Feeling afraid of the city she turned to see Raphael some ways ahead of her and hurried to catch up.

"The buildings are filled with dummy memories as well as…special defenses. Some worse than the Valkyries that raid the sky."

"Why..?"

"Why have such a chaos as my mind?"

Fleur nodded quickly to his back, although he seemed to know that she did as he continued.

"Because this is not my true mind. Simply the defenses. Most will see and think that my mind is simply in shambles and will not think to continue forward. They will think that my mind has been ravaged beyond repair. When it is in fact quite the opposite, for everything in here has a purpose. The buildings hold some fake memories or the imprints of other people's as well as other things, much like the Valkyries up there" he said gesturing towards the demonic angels circling the hellish sky.

They continued on in silence as they walked through the desolate streets until they came across the one place unaffected by the apocalypse going on around it: a graveyard. The graveyard was surrounded by a corpse of trees and a black wrought iron fence covered in dark green ivy with tall gates with a crest that held a silver dragon glaring menacingly at anyone who approached.

Reaching the gates Raphael pulled them open surprisingly silently and walked inside leaving Fleur to follow. The graveyard was filled with black obsidian tombstones each carved with delicate Gothic text, telling who was represented there. The center of the graveyard was dominated by tall mausoleum decorated in true Gothic style with short spires and a heavy brown door with intricate carvings, with the most prominent being a thorny rose.

It was this mausoleum that Raphael approached silently and stopped at the door running his fingers along the carving solemnly. Coming up behind him Fleur saw the name etched above the door.

Marki-Dracul

Fleur softly gasped at seeing the second name. Dracul was the original name of the Vlad the Impaler. By this time Raphael had stopped tracing the door and pulled open the heavy doors in silence and Fleur followed him inside and gasped.

The large room inside was made of polished marble were instead of places for bodies appeared to be drawers that blended seamlessly with the wall. It was in the center of the room that immediately drew her attention though. For placed in there was an intricate golden sarcophagus.

Raphael had stopped at the side of it and was gazing longingly at the surface. Upon the lid was carved an intricate Gothic cross that had a rose crawling its way up the bottom half before resting its flower on the right beam. The rose itself was commanding as it seemed to glow with a bright white color, instead of the usual red one expected of a rose, as though beating in time with a heartbeat. Underneath the cross was a banner with Gothic French script that read:

Melody Alyssa Beaucourt-Marki

April 21, 1978- October 31, 1993

Toujours Pur, Toujours Sombre, Toujours Aimé

Fleur gasped at seeing the name. Beaucourt was the last name of her best friend and she hadn't known that Aimee* had had a sister; much less one that clearly meant the world to Raphael.

"Melody was my sister" came a surprisingly soft voice from her companion, drawing Fleur out of her revere. "She was the most important part of my life and then she was taken from me."

Fleur didn't know what to say except gently take his hand hoping to lend her presence to him.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

Raphael said nothing as he just looked at the glowing white rose for a moment before turning away almost unwillingly and walked towards the far wall with his hand still enveloped by the petite hand of Fleur's. Reaching the wall he pressed a rune that was nearly completely hidden and easily over looked. The wall dropped soundlessly away revealing a set of stairs that led downward.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs they came across another heavy door, equally carved with designs and another rune which he pressed. The rune glowed briefly for a moment before a click was heard as the door came unlocked and swung open. The room inside was drastically different than anything one would expect to be hidden underneath a mausoleum. Instead of a crypt, the door led into a giant library. Dominating each wall except one were towering bookcases filled with not only books but glowing white orbs as well as numerous other objects. The single uncovered wall was small and held a stone fireplace with a mantle with a large color photograph hanging on the wall depicting a coal black haired boy of about 13 with vibrant emerald green eyes with a girl of the same age with curly light brown hair and hazel eyes leaning with her head on the boys shoulder as they sat against a tree with in a grassy plain with the sky an unusual pink as the sun set.

In front of the fireplace was a pair of couches around a wooden coffee table. The wall was paneled in a dark wood while the floor was carpeted in a dark red color. The room itself while being clearly large seemed to be small with a homey feel to it.

Raphael walked to over to the couches and sat down with Fleur following behind and sitting beside him, still holding his hand.

"While Melody was not my actual biological sister she was in all that mattered. When Castiel found me when I was 11, I was not the only one he picked up. He had also found a small girl by the name of Melody Beaucourt in the streets of France and had adopted her into his family. We grew up together and were very close, more so than any siblings usually are. When I was older I became her sire when she turned, and that only proved to bring us more together. It's very likely that when we were older that she would have ruled by my side.

That changed when we were 15. On Halloween that year we were visiting a nearby town that was especially superstitious, and as was one of our pastimes we loved to travel it in our vampyr forms scaring the citizens. We had just come from a frightening a small group when we were attacked." Raphael had to stop as tears began coursing down his normally cold façade.

Fleur said nothing except reaching over and embracing him.

"A group…a group of vampire hunters in the area had heard about supposed vampire sightings and had decided that they needed to be eliminated. Unknowingly they came across us and believing us to be vampires they struck at us. I was knocked out for a moment from behind and when I came to, I saw the leader of the hunters standing over Melody smirking. Before I could do anything he staked her through the heart and set her on fire." Raphael's voice cracked as he spoke.

"I could do nothing as I watched her burn to death as the hunters stood around her laughing. I was furious but could do nothing as she died. That was when the one holding me made a fatal mistake by loosening his hold on me.

What followed was a massacre of those hunters, yet in spite of my rage the one who I had the most desire to kill had fled, leaving me with the burning body of the person I loved more than anything."

Raphael turned and pulled Fleur close to him for comfort as he cried into her hair.

Unable to do anything Fleur simply held the distraught man for nearly 30 minutes. Finally he pulled away and began speaking again.

"That day I vowed my revenge upon that hunter and did everything in my power to make him pay. However I knew that at the time I wasn't strong enough to do anything to him, so I found a way to make myself more powerful, and to this day it is one of the only things I truly regret doing."

"What was it?"

"I sold my soul."

Fleur went deathly silent at this.

"You…you…you sold your soul?" she said weakly.

"Yes"

"To the devil?" she said in the same small voice.

"Of course not" he said laughing grimly.

"Then who did you sell it too?"

Raphael looked at her in the eyes.

"What do you know about the Shadow Realm?"

"The what?"

"The Shadow Realm. Just like how this plane of existence contains all of the earthly creatures such as humans and veela, the Shadow Realm contains creatures such as shadow wolves and mephits. The Shadow Realm is basically a parallel world that overlaps this one only it is covered in shadows, with next to no light. The Shadow Realm is divided into two levels or tiers with the first being the most like the human plane while the second is mostly a no-man's land that holds the most dangerous of the shadow beings. Understand?"

Fleur nodded.

"Well the Shadow Realm is ruled by the Lord Masters of the Shadow Realm which include the 5 Greater Shadow Dragons Apep, Samil, Tanis, Szotfrin*, and Vasuki. These 5 dragons rule over much of the Shadow Realm and are some of the most powerful beings on this Earth. As vampyrs are naturally creatures of the shadows we are able visit the Shadow Realm, which is part of how we can travel through the shadows. Well, after my descent into revenge, I entered the Shadow Realm and the second tier and approached the Master Apep with a bid for more power. Master Apep is one of the most powerful of the 5 and was once a dragon of Egypt when he was banished into the Shadow Realm by Ramses II, he is also quite evil, which is why I approached him specifically. In exchange for my soul he would give me unimaginable power for me to extract my revenge against the Hunter.

At the time I was so focused on my revenge for Melody that I would have agreed to anything so I accepted his offer. Fortunately something happened to my soul, and as it was transferring to Apep the transfer was disrupted. I still got the power, but I don't have my soul, but he doesn't either."

"The rose!" Fleur gasped suddenly.

Raphael nodded sadly.

"Yes, my soul resides in the rose of the sarcophagus of Melody. Forever trapped there. In this representation of my mind, I made it the same as the real to forever remind me of what I have done. "

"Is there no way to get it back?"

"None that I know of yet. It is the one thing that I deeply regret, that I do not own my soul."

"I will help you get it back Cree. I understand why you did it, even if I wish you it wasn't so."

"Thank you" he said weakly. "After gaining the power from Apep, I went on a week long massacre of every single hunter that I came across. Yet one still eludes me to this day, the one that I most want to kill in this world."

After some time of a comfortable silence Fleur asked about something she had wanted to know since entering the room.

"So what is this room exactly?"

Raphael smiled.

"This room is an almost exactly replica of the library of my home, where instead of the books, each of the books here contain memories and knowledge. For instance this." He said getting up and walking towards a bookshelf and after scanning them grabbing one tenderly, brought it over to the couch and flicked it open. Coming to a page he passed the book to Fleur who looked down at the page expecting to see writing.

Upon looking at where there would have been writing in the book Fleur felt herself entering a memory, much like how it felt when they had entered the Raphael's mind.

-Memory-

October 31, 1992
Werst, Romania

11:45 PM

("Speech is in Romanian")

Raphael smirked as he and Melody fled the scene of the two young children lying passed out road. He loved this time of year. Every year on Halloween he and Melody would visit a local village and run rampant on the citizens in their demonic vampyr forms. Being that it was Halloween, the villagers would be especially superstitious and seeing a vampire. Well, that just made it better. It also helped that the castle of this village was believed to have been occupied by the devil.

Panting they rounded a corner and hid in the darkness of the alleyway as they leaned against each other laughing hysterically as quietly as they could, seeing a group of villagers coming tearing through the road they just left looking for the 'vampires'.

"Oh Cree, that was great! The faces on those two little girls was priceless!" Melody chocked out in between her laughter.

Raphael was faring no better in his laughter as he remembered the two girls terror. After some time he peeked around the corner to make sure that the hunting party was gone before turning to his sister with a wicked grin on his face.

"You want to do the next one Mel?"

Melody's evil smirk said it all.

-Vampyr Rising-

"Are you sure this is right way Andrei?"said the small boy shakily.

"Oh be quite Sorin. Of course I'm sure this is it." said the boy named Andrei

The two boys continued on down the darkened street before stopping abruptly as they saw a shadowy figure flicker across the street.

"W..what was that?" stuttered Sorin.

Although looking perturbed the older boy tired to not act scared in front of his younger brother.

"Nothing" he said before mumbling under his breath "I hope"

"What we're nothing to you?" came a feminine voice from behind them.

The two boys whipped around coming face to face with a demonic face.

The girl was dressed in a black hooded cloak with hood thrown back revealing light brown hair. The absence of the hood also revealed to them her face. Her eyes had turned a deep blood red and sunk into her face that was a sharp contrast to her pale skin. Fangs protruded from mouth and over her bottom lip.

It was obvious to the boys what she was. A vampire. If it wasn't obvious from her pale skin and fangs the stream of blood from the corners of her mouth gave it away. To afraid to say anything they just stood staring at the vampire in horror.

Unnoticed to them another figure had pulled up behind them. Unnoticed that is until Andrei was tapped on the shoulder. Slowly turning around to hopefully see a rescue he came face to face with a black haired vampire who smirked evilly down at him.

"Boo"

Andrei couldn't take it anymore and screamed out in fear as he collapsed in a faint against his brother pulling him down with him.

Raphael laughed as he looked at the unconscious forms of the two boys before looking up to his sister who had an angry look on her face.

"You couldn't even let me knock them out?" she demanded.

Her only answer was a haunting laughter that echoed throughout the dark streets of Werst, reminding the villagers just what night it was.

-Vampyr Rising-

Name: Raphael Creed Ţepeş (Dracul)

Species: Vampyr

Age: 17

D.O.B.: September 16, 1978

Physical Description: 6'6'' with short coal black hair; pitch black eyes; capable of having giant leathery wings; faded lightning bolt scar

Physical Fitness: Excellent shape with cords of muscle, while not being overwhelming

Abilities: Enhanced speed and senses; demonic form; Shadow Arts

Skills: Tactical Intelligence; Stealth; Assassinations

Languages: Romanian (Native), English, Hungarian, Turkish, Persian, German, French

Spell Power: 0/10 (bound magical core)

Spell Knowledge: 6/10 (studies of the dark arts)

Strengths: Shadow Manipulation; working in the darkness;

Weaknesses: Minor Light Sensitiveness; Fire

Rank: Vampyr Lord; Lord Ţepeş (Dracul) ; Shade 00; Shadow Demon

Next of Kin: Castiel Marki (Father); Melody Beaucourt-Marki (sister) (deceased)

Information: Raphael is the young, ruthless leader of the Vampyr Nation and leader of the Shades, his personal group of assassins. While being known as a heartless killer, he has a strong sense of family. He is fluent in 7 languages as well as several other minor languages as is needed as his territory and business often expands into neighboring countries.

Name: Harry James Potter

Species: Human

D.O.B.: July 31, 1978

D.O.D.: September 15, 1989

Next of Kin: James Adam Potter (father) (deceased); Lily Reese Potter (mother) (deceased)

Information: The only known survivor of the killing curse, Harry was left at muggle relatives house where he was beaten to death by his Uncle. No one in the Wizarding World knows what happened to him.

A/n: And now we know the driving force behind Raphael as well as introducing an important character and one of the main plot points. The Soul arch will be addressed more in what is right now 3 parts which will be coming up later.

How do you like Raphael's mind scape? And can anyone guess why Apep doesn't hold his soul entirely? Oh and if you can tell me what is going on in my first a/n, kudos for you.

Oh and the French on Melody's epitaph reads "Always Pure, Always Dark, Always Loved" in English. Translations come from Google Translate seeing as to how I don't know French. I have the cross designed out, and if I post it somewhere, I'll provide a link.

You'll also be happy to know that I now have more advance plans for this, to the point that I know how it will end. Just when is not clear.

*Credit for Szotfrin and much of the Shadow Realm information comes from damon blade's fic Wolf. Credit for Aimee Beaucourt comes from The Lie I've Lived by jbern

Peace,
~Cain