Suddenly, she was on her feet, her eyes blazing with an anger that she was finding almost impossible to control.
“Where do you get off?” she hissed. “What I do is my business. If I decide to run head long into traffic, it’s none of your concern. And give me some credit. You may think I’m a stupid half-wit, but I had the sense to come back here. See, this is me. Here.”
“I spent all day looking for you,” Christian said through clenched teeth.
“Nobody asked you to,” she said through equally clenched teeth.
“You could’ve died today!”
“Chris, we’re all gonna die someday! You can’t save the world!”
And just like that, his anger disappeared. He felt himself deflate like a balloon. Because the thing was, he was supposed to save the world. That wasn’t just his job. It was his entire reason for being. Taking a close look at her, he could see she was still angry, but that her anger, too, was subsiding.
“I was worried about you,” he admitted. “You shouldn’t have run off like that.”
“I wasn’t out to get myself killed,” she answered back, her voice much more calm, though a little uneven. “I was just angry with you.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t know how to. He knew what she wanted, and he wanted to be able to tell her yes, she could help him find and kill the Master Vampire. But if he did, he was as good as killing her. But if he didn’t, she would probably go on hating him for as long as he was in New York. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
Lorenzo, who had been silent through the entire episode, finally spoke, startling both Christian and Caroline.
“If you are both done, might I have the floor for a moment?” he asked. Christian blushed, ashamed that he had allowed his temper to get the better of him, that he had acted in such a manner in front of Lorenzo.
“The way I see the situation,” the old priest said, standing up and approaching the two younger people, “is that Caroline is going to be a certain target now due to her witnessing the attack on her family, which means she must remain with us, no arguments allowed.”
Christian and Caroline both remained silent, waiting for Lorenzo to continue.
“The problem here is the same one you, Christian, yourself faced several years ago. What to do with this thirst for revenge? Obviously, Caroline’s cannot be channeled as yours was. Still, it would be unhealthy to keep inside. It would be suicide to actively pursue your family’s killers, Caroline. This you must understand.”
She looked as if she wanted to argue, but wisely, she waited for Lorenzo to finish.
“It will do your family no good if you are killed. How can you help them then?”
Christian looked at her, and for the first time, she seemed a bit ashamed, as if she had never considered this. She hung her head a bit.
“What I propose is this,” Lorenzo continued. “I have many books to go through that I hope will give us hints and clues about the Master Vampire and how to kill him. While you are with us, Caroline, I could use your help in researching these things. As much as I hate to admit it, I am getting older. I get tired more easily and my eyesight is getting weak. Having someone here to read with me would be a tremendous help. I would like Christian, however, to instruct you in ways to defend yourself against a vampire attack. While it would be suicidal for you to pursue them, we want you to have the upper-hand should they actively pursue you, which they most assuredly will.”
The old man looked from Caroline to Christian and back again.
“That is what I propose. Is that agreeable to you?”
Christian would have preferred to lock Caroline in a windowless room until the whole ordeal was over in order to ensure her safety, but he knew that was far from realistic. While he knew the proposal wouldn’t make either him or Caroline perfectly happy, it was a compromise, and one he could work with; he waited to see how Caroline would take it. Finally, she answered.
“Yes,” she said. “I can live with that.”
“Then so can I,” Christian finally answered.
“Wonderful,” Lorenzo said. “Shall we begin now?”
“Right now?” Caroline asked, and Christian thought she sounded a bit nervous, giving away the fact that she wasn’t quite as brave as she pretended to be.
“Just a quick overview, I think. Important things to know,” Lorenzo replied, turning to Christian for help. Christian readily jumped in.
“Right.” He turned to Caroline, knowing she had to at least be halfway prepared to defend herself, despite how much he was dreading her ever coming face to face with a vampire again. He knew it was a possibility, though, and at least with some knowledge she had a better chance of survival.
“Only three things can kill a vampire,” he told her, “and they are sunlight, decapitation, and a wooden stake through the heart.”
“Since it is currently impossible to carry sunlight around in your pocket,” Lorenzo supplied, “and most people do not have the strength to decapitate a minion of the devil, it would probably be prudent for you to carry several stakes with you at all times from now on. Of course, you will almost never run into a vampire in the day time, though a rash few dare to venture into the shadows every now and then.”
“Which means,” said Christian, “that if you have to go out at night, make sure I am with you.”
“Anything else?” she asked, and Christian knew she was concentrating intently on everything he and Lorenzo were telling her, storing all this information in her head; she intended to be well prepared for her next vampire encounter.
“Yes,” Christian continued. “Holy water will weaken them, and with enough of it, you could probably kill one, though I’ve never heard of it being done.”
“And one more important thing,” Lorenzo jumped in. Both Caroline and Christian turned to him.
“You cannot tell anyone about vampires. You are the only person in the world outside of Manus Dei who is aware of their existence. This knowledge must remain a secret.”
“All right,” she agreed, as if this was the sort of thing she did every day of her life.
“Well, there’s been quite enough excitement tonight,” Lorenzo said to her. “Tomorrow, you and I will go to Saint Joseph’s. There are a few books I left there that I wish to go through extensively; they may contain prophecies of some importance. Christian, I assume you will go out tonight?”
“Yes,” he answered, “I’ll see what I can find, see who’s lurking around.”
“Well, good night then.” Christian watched the old man leave the room to prepare for bed, then finally turned to Caroline, trying to discern if she would ask to go with him tonight, or if she could be satisfied by the compromise she had agreed to. He was taken by surprise, however, when she finally spoke.
“I’m sorry that I worried you today,” she apologized. “I never meant to. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Well, I’m sorry for the way I acted,” he admitted. He wanted her to be happy, but more than that, he wanted her to be safe. He studied her face.
“Are you really all right with this compromise?” he asked her.
“I am,” she answered honestly. “I just want to catch them, Chris. I want them to pay.”
“They will,” he told her, taking her hand in his and squeezing it. “I promise you, they will.”
“I’ve got to get going,” he said, reluctantly letting go of her hand. “You can sleep in my bedroom tonight.”
“I can sleep on the couch,” Caroline began to argue but Christian cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to be out for most of the night anyway. I’ll just crash on the couch when I get in. It won’t be so bad.”
They both turned to look at the somewhat small, very lumpy couch, not looking in the least comfortable. Caroline suppressed a smile and a surge of appreciation for his lie.
“Are you sure?” she asked, just to double check.
“Yes,” Christian ins
isted. She had buried her family this morning – if he could spare her any more pain today, even pain caused by sleeping on a couch, then he’d gladly do it.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. He turned and walked towards the front of the room, but her voice stopped him.
“Chris?”
He turned around to look at her, standing in the doorway, bathed in the soft light of the room, looking vulnerable and beautiful and scared.
“Be careful, okay?”
He was caught off guard by her comment. He wasn’t used to anyone except Lorenzo caring about what happened to him. He was touched by her concern, and he found himself smiling at her and vowing silently that he wouldn’t rest until he had repaid his debt to her in full.
“I will.”
And with that, he left.
Chapter Nine
Angel sat outside of the hotel for four hours before they finally appeared – all three of them walked out together. The old priest, the handsome priest, and the girl. Angel sneered into her styrofoam cup of coffee. She supposed Caroline wasn’t as mad at the hunter as she had been the afternoon before when she had been running away from him; Angel could understand. With a face and body like his, even if he was a priest, she wouldn’t stay mad at him long, either.
She was staked out across the street, in front of a gift shop, a pair of cheap sunglasses on her face, a Yankees baseball cap pulled down over her bright head of hair. She watched as the trio walked up the street and crossed at the light. She took a sip from the steaming cup in her hands. When they were a safe distance ahead of her, she merged into the throngs of people walking through the streets, and followed to wherever it was they were going.
Caroline watched from a back pew as Chris and Lorenzo stood at the altar at Saint Joseph’s, their hands raised, murmuring quiet prayers together.
Caroline wasn’t into the whole church thing – she was pretty sure she didn’t believe in God, though she was more convinced about the devil as of late. But she had agreed to follow the rules Lorenzo had laid out, so wherever Chris went, she went, and today it was to church. She watched the two men do the sign of the cross, genuflect, and then join her where she was sitting. Chris sat, but Lorenzo remained standing.
“I shall be right back,” he said, excusing himself. “I wish to speak to one of the parish priests before we begin working. I won’t be long.”
Caroline watched the old man leave, suddenly aware that she and Chris were all alone. The empty church felt huge, but at the same time stifling. She was aware of Chris’ presence by her side, but she refused to look at him.
She had known he was a priest. She had even guessed it before he had told her, but today, just now, the point had been driven home. Chris was a priest. He had chosen to devote his life to God’s work. Why this suddenly made her so uncomfortable, she didn’t know. Or maybe she did, and she just didn’t want to admit it. Whatever it was, she would have to deal with it for as long as she and Chris and Lorenzo were together, however long that might be. She heard him sigh.
“It makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it?” he asked. “The fact that I’m a priest.”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I know it shouldn’t, but it’s a little weird.”
“You’re a great guy, you know? But you’re not just a guy.” She could feel herself blushing and tripping over her words. “I mean, I don’t know anything about priests. To me, I think priest and I picture an old guy, like Lorenzo. I mean, can you just hang out and stuff? Or is that off-limits? I mean, are you allowed to have girl friends? Not girlfriends, I didn’t mean that. Friends who are girls.”
She knew she sounded stupid, but her mouth seemed to have a mind of its own; she couldn’t stop babbling. She had never talked so much since she met Chris. Whether she was yelling or babbling, she was speaking, and it was bad. Everything she said was an attempt to clear up something said before, but it just ended up being worse. She thought maybe she might die of embarrassment right then and there, especially since Chris hadn’t said anything yet.
“It’s just a little weird,” she finally said, knowing how lame it sounded.
Christian was glad she was too embarrassed to look at him because he didn’t want her to see how red he was. And he had wanted to know if his being a priest made her uncomfortable! He felt terrible. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her when he had. He had known it would change things between them, but it wasn’t exactly something he could hide. It was something that was part of who he was, and he wanted her to be okay with it. The thing was, he liked Caroline a lot. He’d never really had any close friends, male or female, but he enjoyed her company and he didn’t want things to be strained between them. He hadn’t realized until he met her how much he missed having someone to talk to who wasn’t Lorenzo.
“I want you to be okay with this,” he insisted, finally looking at her, and she finally looked at him, though she was still a little red. “I’m still just a guy. I’m just a guy who prays a lot, who doesn’t date, and who fights vampires.” He managed to get her to crack a smile at his last remark, but it quickly faded as she continued to think about what he had said, and the situation they were in.
They fell into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, and he knew she was just as relieved as he was when Lorenzo returned, a pile of books in his arms. Glad to have something to do, Christian jumped up and grabbed the pile from him.
“Thank you,” Lorenzo said, wheezing a bit. “I guess I really am getting a little old.” This elicited a smile from Caroline.
“What are they?” she asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice as she looked over the pile of ancient books, cracked leather binding and stiff, yellowed pages.
“One is a book by a historian out of Bavaria, several centuries’ worth of folklore. I’m trying to trace the origins of the Master Vampires,” Lorenzo explained. “I believe that if we can figure out where they come from, it may be a key to how to destroy them. The others contain more prophecies. I’m hoping some of them will contain something about the Apocalypse.”
“Well, shall we get started then?” Christian asked.
“Yes, let’s bring these back to the hotel, and we can study them for the next few hours and then compare notes.”
All three gathered up their coats and exited the church, disappearing into the throngs of the oblivious, walking the streets as if this was a normal city, and these were normal times.
It was dark outside. Clad in only an overly large T-shirt and a terrycloth robe, Angel poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. She didn’t even flinch when the back door crashed open and Anya and Gideon breezed in, Anya giggling hysterically, her arms laced around Gideon’s neck. Angel lit a cigarette and ignored them as Anya continued to giggle at something Gideon was whispering into her ear.
“Isn’t it a little early for you two to be up?” Angel asked irritably. Gideon turned from where he had Anya pressed up against the stove and glared at Angel.
“Soon you will outlive your usefulness, human,” he hissed, causing Anya to break out into another fit of uncontrollable giggling. Gideon approached where Angel was sitting.
“Is the Master awake yet?” he asked, smiling coldly at her.
“I am,” came an icy voice from behind Gideon. He turned to find the Master entering the kitchen, buttoning up his shirt.
“Don’t you and Anya have something useful to do?” he asked, not once looking at Gideon, but his voice sharp and menacing.
“We were just leaving now,” Gideon said, much meeker than when he had addressed Angel.
“Good. I don’t expect to see either of you until dawn.” Realizing he was being dismissed, Gideon grabbed Anya by the hand, and shooting Angel one more glare, stalked out of the house. The Master stayed where he was, but turned his icy gaze onto Angel, who suddenly felt self-conscious in her state of undress. She hadn’t even brushed her hair yet. Not that he cared. But she did.
“Very soon, I want you to go
to the hunter,” he told her, turning away from her and buttoning his cuffs. Angel watched him intently, his every move fascinating her.
“Go to him and his mentor, go to the girl, and convince them to let you join them.”
“How will I do that?” she asked incredulously. What he was asking sounded impossible. He turned his gaze on her and grinned, the smile of a dangerous, feral animal.
“Be cunning, my Angel,” he said, stepping closer, reaching out and running a cold finger down her equally cold cheek.
“Convince them that your family was also attacked by vampires. That’s how the girl got in. If she can do it, so can you. Be creative.”
She was still listening, although all she could think of was his touch, of his hand on her face, in her hair, on her body.
“You must be my eyes and ears, my Angel. Join them, and they will trust you. Use that trust to find out all you can, and then report back to me. Help me bring down the hunter, my Angel, and your reward will be great.”
He stared into her eyes, and she thought she might drown in the blackness of his own.
“Help me bring down the hunter, my Angel, and I will make you my Queen.”
Chapter Ten
Caroline was sitting in the lobby of the police station. She had been there for an hour, waiting to see either of the detectives on her case. She had initially met with them shortly after being released from the hospital following that night…the night that had changed everything. And while they both seemed more than competent, she had quickly realized upon meeting Chris and Lorenzo that they were way over their heads. How were the police supposed to catch a killer that according to society didn’t even exist? Caroline was pretty sure “Master Vampire” had never made it onto the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.
She had left a message at the front desk that she was “inquiring about anything new in the case,” but she knew they wouldn’t have anything. This was way beyond their league. She just didn’t want them getting suspicious of the fact that she wasn’t interested – if this was a normal case, she’d be at the station, hounding the detectives to find her family’s killers. Hence, waiting in the lobby, playing the part.
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