Should I end her suffering or wait for her to die?
He moved forward, closing the distance, still unsure. But before he could decide, she pounced out of the shadows and into the burning sunlight. The move caught him off guard. He managed to roll to the side, but sharp claws raked his left arm.
He spun to face her again as his blood dripped onto the hot sand.
She lowered into a wary crouch. The skin on her muzzle wrinkled back into a hiss. The sound chilled even his cold heart. She was a powerful foe, but she could not spend much time away from the tree’s shadow. She was still blasphemare, and she would weaken quickly in the direct sunlight.
He moved to place himself between her and the safety of the tree.
The threat agitated her, setting her tail to swishing in savage arcs. She bunched her hind legs and leaped. Yellow teeth aimed for his neck.
Rhun met the challenge this time, jumping toward her in turn, a plan in mind. He spun to the side at the last second, dragging his silver knife across her burned shoulder. He landed in a roll, turning to keep her in sight.
Blood flowed heavily out of the laceration, pouring forth like pitch, thick and black. It was a mortal wound. He backed away, giving her the leeway to retreat into the shadows and die in peace.
Instead, an unearthly yowl burst from deep in her chest—and she was upon him again, ignoring the safety of the shadows to attack him in full sunlight.
Caught off guard by this surprising assault, Rhun moved too slowly. Her teeth closed on his left wrist, grinding together, trying to crush his bones. His blade fell from his fingers.
Twisting in her grip, he slashed down with his other hand—sinking that blade into her eye.
She screamed in agony, loosening her jaws on his damaged wrist. He pulled his arm free, digging his heels into the sand and pushing away from her. He cradled his damaged wrist against his chest, girding for another charge.
But his blade had struck true, and she collapsed on the sand. Her one good eye looked into his. The crimson glow faded to a deep golden brown before she closed her eye for the last time.
The curse had left her in the end, as it always did.
Rhun whispered, “Dominus vobiscum.”
With yet another trace of corruption removed from these sands, Rhun began to turn away—when once again a plaintive mewling reached his ears.
He stopped and turned back, cocking his head. He heard the soft skitter of another heartbeat. A small shadow sidled out from the shadows, moving toward the dead lioness.
A cub.
Its fur was snowy and pure.
Rhun stared in shock. The lioness must have been pregnant, giving the last of her life to give birth, a mother’s final sacrifice. He now understood why she hadn’t retreated to the shadows when given the opportunity. The lioness had been fighting him in her final moments to protect her offspring, to drive him away from her cub.
The infant nosed the lifeless bulk of its mother. Dread filled Rhun. If the cub had been born of her tainted womb and had fed on her corrupted blood, then it was surely blasphemare as well.
I will have to destroy it, too.
He collected the blade that had dropped into the sand.
The cub nudged its mother’s head, trying to get her to rise. It mewled as if it knew it was orphaned and abandoned.
As he edged toward the creature, Rhun studied it cautiously. While it scarcely reached his knee, even such small blasphemare could be dangerous. Closer now, he noted its snowy coat bore grayish rosettes, mostly dotting its round forehead. The cub must have been born after the battle, making it no more than twelve weeks old.
If Rhun had not stumbled upon the cub, it would have died an agonizing death under the sun or starved to death in the shadows.
It would be a kindness to take its life.
His grip tightened on his karambit.
Sensing his approach for the first time, the young cub looked up at him, it eyes shining in the sunlight. It sank back on its haunches, revealing it was a male. The cub leaned his head back and meowed loudly, clearly demanding something from him.
Those small eyes found his again.
He knew what the cub wanted, what all young creatures craved: love and care.
Sensing no threat, Rhun lowered his arm with a sigh. He slipped the knife back into its wrist sheath and stepped closer, dropping to one knee.
“Come to me, little one.”
Rhun beckoned, then reached slowly as the cub approached on splayed paws, comically outsized for his body. As soon as Rhun touched the warm fur, a rumbling rose from the small form. A soft head butted against Rhun’s open palm, then brittle whiskers rubbed his cold skin.
Rhun scratched under the cub’s chin, which stoked that purr louder.
He stared up at the searing sun, noting that the cub seemed oblivious, unharmed by light.
Strange.
Rhun carefully lifted the animal to his nose and drew in the cub’s scent: milk, acacia leaves, and the musky scent of a baby lion.
No hint of a blasphemare’s corruption.
Moist eyes stared up at him. The irises were a caramel brown, rimmed with a thin line of gold.
Ordinary eyes.
He sat down as he pondered this mystery. The cat climbed into his lap, while he absently stroked the velvety chin with his uninjured hand. Purring, the cub rested his muzzle on Rhun’s knee, sniffing a bit, and licking at some blood that had soaked into his trousers from his injured wrist.
“No,” he scolded, pushing the tiny head away and starting to stand.
Sunlight flashed off the silver flask strapped to Rhun’s leg. The cub pounced at it, hooking a claw around the strap that secured the wine flask in place and chewing at the leather.
“Enough.”
While the cub was clearly only playing, Rhun pushed the stubborn animal off his leg and straightened the flask. He realized he had not drunk a drop of wine since yesterday. Perhaps that weakness had softened his heart against the creature. He should fortify himself before he made any decision.
I must act from a place of strength, not sentiment.
To that end, Rhun unfastened the flask and lifted the wine toward his lips, but before he could take a sip, the lion cub rose on his hind legs and knocked the bottle out of Rhun’s fingers.
The flask fell into the sand, the holy wine spilling forth.
The lion bent and lapped from that red font. While the cub was surely dehydrated, looking for any liquid to quench his thirst, Rhun still stiffened in fear. If the cub had even a drop of blasphemare blood, the holiness in the wine would burn the creature to ash.
He tugged the cub away. The cat glanced back at him, wine staining his snowy muzzle. Rhun wiped the droplets away with the back of his hand. The cub appeared unharmed. Rhun looked closer. For a brief instant, he would have sworn those small eyes shone with a pure golden shine.
The cub butted his head against Rhun’s knee again, and when the small creature stared up at him again, the eyes had returned to that caramel brown.
Rhun rubbed his own eyes, blaming the brief illusion on a trick of the desert sunlight.
Still, the fact remained that the cub had moved in the sunlight and consumed sacramental wine without any ill effect, proving the young cat was no blasphemare. Perhaps the holy fire had spared the cub because the animal was an innocent in his mother’s womb. Perhaps it also explained why the lioness had lived through the blast, weakened but strong enough to bring forth this new life.
If God spared this innocent life, how can I abandon it now?
With the decision made, Rhun gathered the cub up in his tunic and headed back toward his camp. While it was forbidden for a Sanguinist to possess a blasphemare creature, no edict forbade them from owning ordinary pets. Yet, as he crossed the desert with the warm cub purring against his chest, Rhun knew one firm certainty.
This was no ordinary creature.
March 17, 5:16 P.M. CET
Vatican City
Words from
Dante’s Inferno filled Erin’s head as she passed through the Sanguinist gate to enter the order’s private Sanctuary: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. According to Dante, that warning had been inscribed above the entrance to Hell.
And it would be fitting enough here, too.
The antechamber beyond the gate was lined by torches made of bundled rushes, placed at regular intervals along the walls. Though smoky, they illuminated a long hall, lit brightly enough that she clicked off her flashlight.
She set off along its length, noting that the walls had no elaborate frescoes as could be found in St. Peter’s Basilica. The order’s Sanctuary was known to be simple, almost austere. Beyond the smoke, the air smelled of wine and incense, not unlike a church.
At the end of the hall, a large circular chamber opened, equally unadorned.
But it didn’t mean the room was empty.
Smooth niches had been carved into the bare walls. Some spaces held what appeared to be exquisite white statues, with hands folded in prayer, eyes closed, faces either downcast or lifted toward the ceiling. But these statues could move, they were in fact ancient Sanguinists, those who had sunk deeply into meditation and contemplation.
They were known as the Cloistered Ones.
The gateway she and Christian had chosen to use to enter the Sanctuary opened into their inner sanctum. She had picked this doorway because the Sanguinist library lay within the Cloistered Ones’ meditative wing—which made sense as the proximity of such a storehouse of knowledge would be useful for reflection and study.
Erin stepped to the threshold of the large room and stopped. Surely the Cloistered Ones must have sensed the gateway opening nearby or heard her frantic heartbeat, but none of the figures stirred.
At least not yet.
She waited another moment. Christian had told her to give these ancient Sanguinists time to adjust to her presence, to see what they decided. If they wanted to keep her out of their domain, they would.
She stared across the space to a distant archway. According to the map, it marked the entrance to the library. Almost without realizing it, she moved toward it. She stepped slowly—not to be quiet, but out of respect to those around her.
Her gaze swept the walls, waiting for an arm to raise, a hoarse voice to call out. She noted several of the still figures wore clothing and robes from orders that no longer existed in the world above. She imagined those ancient times, trying to picture these quiet, contemplative forms as former warriors for the Church.
All of these Cloistered Ones were once as alive as Rhun.
Rhun had been headed to one of these niches, ready to turn his back upon the outer world, but then he had been summoned by prophecy to seek out the Blood Gospel, joining her and Jordan on this ongoing quest to stop a coming apocalypse. But at times, she saw the world-weariness in that dark priest, the weight of the bloodshed and horrors he had experienced.
She had begun to understand his haunted look. Lately she woke all too often with a scream clenched in her throat. The horrors she had endured played in a never-ending loop in her dreams: soldiers torn to pieces by savage creatures . . . the clear silver eyes of a woman Erin had shot to save Rhun’s life . . . strigoi children dying in the snow . . . a bright young boy falling on a sword.
Too much had been sacrificed to this quest.
And it was far from over.
She stared at the unmoving statues.
Rhun, is this the peace you truly seek or do you just want to hide down here? Would I hide down here if I could, lost in study and peace?
Sighing softly, she continued across the wide room. None of the Cloistered Ones acknowledged her passage. At last, she reached the archway that led into the pitch-dark library. Her fingers touched her flashlight, but then moved to the beeswax candle she had pocketed earlier. She lit the wick from one of the neighboring torches, then stepped across the threshold into the library.
As she held the candle aloft, the flickering glow illuminated a hexagonal space, lined by shelves of books and cubbyholes for scrolls. There were no chairs to sit in, no reading lights, nothing that hinted at human needs. Walking by candlelight made her feel as if she had traveled back in time.
She smiled at the thought and consulted her map. To her left, a smaller archway led to another room. The medieval mapmaker had noted that this room contained the Sanguinists’ most ancient texts. If there was any knowledge of Lucifer’s fall and imprisonment in Hell, that’s where she should begin her search.
She headed there and found another hexagonal room. She pictured the layout of this library, imagining it sprawling out with similar rooms, like the comb of a beehive, only the treasure here was not a flow of golden honey, but an ancient font of knowledge. This room was similar to the first, but here there were more scrolls than books. One wall even held a dusty shelf of copper and clay tablets, hinting at the older nature to this particular collection.
But it wasn’t the presence of such rare artifacts that drew her to a stop.
A figure, covered in a film of dust, stood in the center of the room, but like the Cloistered Ones, this was no statue. Though his back was to her, she knew who stood there. She had once looked into his eyes, black as olives, and had heard his deep voice. In the past, the few words spoken by those ashen lips had changed everything. Here was the founder of the Sanguinist order, a man who had once counted the holiest of the holy among his friends, the one who had died and had risen again at the hand of Christ himself.
Lazarus.
She bowed her head, not sure what else to do. She stood for what seemed an interminable time, her heart pounding in her ears.
Still, he remained motionless, his eyes closed.
Finally, with no word spoken against her trespass, she took a deep shuddering breath and stepped past his still form. She didn’t know what else to do. She had come here with a specific goal in mind, and as long as no one stopped her, she would continue on the course she had started.
But where to start?
She searched the shelves and cubbies. It would take years to translate and read all that could be found here. Lost and overwhelmed, she turned to the room’s sole occupant, its makeshift librarian. Her candlelight reflected off his open dark eyes.
“Lazarus,” she whispered. Even his name sounded far too loud for the space, but she pressed on. “I am here to find—”
“I know.” Dust fell from his lips with those few words. “I have been waiting.”
An arm rose smoothly, shedding more motes into the air. A single long finger pointed to a clay tablet that rested near the edge of a shelf. She moved over to it, glancing down. It was no larger than a deck of cards, terracotta in color. Lines of script covered its surface.
Erin carefully picked it up and examined it, recognizing the writing as Aramaic, a language she knew well. She skimmed the first few lines. It recounted a familiar story: the arrival of a serpent in the Garden of Eden and its confrontation with Eve.
“From the Book of Genesis,” she mumbled to herself.
According to most interpretations, that serpent was Lucifer, come to tempt Eve. But this account seemed to refer to the snake as just another animal in the garden, only craftier than the others.
She brought her candle closer to the most significant descriptor of that snake, phonetically speaking it aloud. “Chok-maw.”
The word could be interpreted as wise or crafty, or even clever or sly.
Erin continued to translate the tablet, finding the story written here much like the account in the King James Bible. Again Eve refused to eat of the fruit, saying that God had warned her that she would die if she disobeyed. But the serpent argued that Eve wouldn’t die, but instead she would gain knowledge—knowledge of good and evil.
Erin let out a small breath, realizing that in this story, the serpent was actually more truthful than God. In the end Adam and Eve hadn’t died after consuming the fruit, but as the snake foretold, they had gained knowledge.
She pushed this detail as
ide as insignificant, especially upon reading the next line. It was wholly new. She translated aloud, the candle trembling in her hand.
“ ‘And the serpent said unto the woman: Swear a vow that ye shall take the fruit and share it with me.’ ”
Erin read the passage twice more to make sure she hadn’t mistranslated it, then continued on. In the next line, Eve swore a pact that she would give the snake the fruit. After that, the story continued along the same path as the Bible: Eve eats the fruit, shares it with Adam, and they are cursed and banished.
Her father’s words echoed in her head.
The price of knowledge is blood and pain.
Erin read the entire tablet again.
So in the end, it seemed Eve had broken her promise to the serpent, failing to share the fruit.
Erin pondered this altered story. What did the serpent want with such knowledge in the first place? In all the other Biblical stories, animals didn’t care about knowledge. Did this expanded story further support that the serpent in the garden was indeed Lucifer in disguise?
She shook her head, trying to make sense, to discern some significance. She looked over at Lazarus, hoping for some elaboration.
His eyes only stared back at her.
Before she could question him, a sound echoed to her, coming from beyond the library, the heavy grating of stone.
She stared in that direction.
Someone must be opening the nearby Sanguinist gate.
She checked her wristwatch. Christian had warned her that a sect of Sanguinist priests tended to the Cloistered Ones, bringing them wine to sip. But he hadn’t known their schedule or how often they came down here. She had counted on a little luck to get her by.
And that just ran out.
As soon as those priests got closer, they would hear her heartbeat, blowing her cover. She prayed Bernard wouldn’t be too hard on Christian and Sister Margaret.
She returned the tablet to its shelf, but as she turned around, ready to face the consequences of her trespass, Lazarus leaned forward—and blew out her candle. Startled, she stumbled backward. The library sank into darkness, illuminated only by the faraway torches in the main chamber.
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