Broken Wings

"Wings of a Butterfly" belongs to HIM
"Dance Macabre Opus 40" belongs to whomever composed it.

@@@

Rising to his feet, Abel’s wings twitched as he caught his balance and tried to ignore the fact that he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. Seth at least had a bathrobe on while someone had gotten Leon a large tunic and Astha was clad in her leathers, but all Abel had was his wings. True, he had been naked in the dungeon for the past three months, and if necessary, he could go longer without clothing and not embarrass himself, but now that he had the option to wear clothing, he would prefer it. He glanced around for the door inside only to discover that there weren’t any doors on this side of the palace.

At least, no doors at ground level.

“Um, Seth, how did we get down here?” he asked, glancing down at his sister in confusion. He could remember Ion backing away from him with terror on his young face and then being in the garden, but how Abel got here was a mystery.

She giggled, her voice taking on a faint echoing quality as she shifted into her Crusnik form and spread her emerald wings. “How we normally get around, Sweet Prince.”

Shaking his head, Abel folded his arms across his chest as he smirked down at her. “Quoting Hamlet now, dear sister?”

Laughing again, she scooped up Astha who yelped in surprise before jumping into the air, easily flying up to a balcony on the second story. Abel snickered at his sister’s antics before walking over to scoop Leon up, being careful not to jar the wrapped knee, and he followed them, noticing for the first time that the balcony was large enough to encompass what looked to be a second suite of rooms.

As he placed Leon back onto the couch, Abel found his thoughts drifting back to that possible second suite, and after a quick glance showed that neither of the Fortunas were there, he started towards the balcony to look at that second suite. It wasn’t like his sister to have a second set of rooms that wouldn’t be used, unless that’s where Mirka stayed while pretending to be the Empress. That made sense because then no one would question why the ‘Empress’ was going into another set of rooms.

“Abel, will you sit down and rest.” A strong hand caught his arm and pulled him over to the couch where a blanket was tucked around him, forcing him to absorb his wings, and he blinked at Seth, startled, as she stood there with her hands on her hips. “You can go investigate your rooms after I’ve had a maid clean up in there.”

“My rooms?” Abel could only stare at Seth in surprise. She had a suite made up for him before he even knew that he was going to be here? Did she have a bit of precognition too? But that wasn’t possible since she had never shown the ability during Armageddon and a person was either born with it or they weren’t.

“Yes, your rooms. The ones I had built into the palace for whenever you got around to returning to me with Lilith,” she said, reaching up to lay a hand against his face, and he turned into the touch. “There’s also a mausoleum waiting for Lilith.”

She dropped a quick kiss on his forehead. “Now you wait here while I get dressed because the servants can’t see their Empress in a bathrobe. It’s just not done.” Before Abel could protest the rooms, she was gone, vanishing through another set of doors that looked like they led to a bedroom.

Leon shook his head. “I don’t understand something,” he began, and Abel looked at him, waiting for the question. “If she’s the Empress, why does she hide behind a voice modifier and a veil? Is it because she’s so young looking?”

“Not entirely,” began Abel, carefully choosing his words for this explanation. He didn’t want to reveal too many secrets that weren’t his to tell, but on the other hand, he was going to have to do some serious explaining, and if anyone deserved an explanation, it was these two. “It’s more to hide her identity because if someone knew that she had been ruling for the past nine hundred years, it would raise too many questions. But if no one knew who was beneath the veil, then it would be easy to assume that it was being passed from mother to daughter without anyone being the wiser.”

That got a pair of dropped jaws and incredulous stares from both of them. “You mean, you saw the end of Armageddon?” gasped Leon, his eyes bulging out of his head.

The familiar feeling of grief swept over Abel as he was reminded of the massive amount of lives ended by his hands, and he closed his eyes against the tears that would no longer fall. “It was our fault that Armageddon lasted as long as it did.”

“What?” The word slipped out of two throats, and Abel smiled bitterly as he opened his eyes.

“Let me start at the beginning,” he requested, pulling the blanket tighter around his shoulders and he curled up on the couch. “No one was sure what happened, but countries started fighting each other, determined to wipe out their enemies, and soon the fighting spread to every corner of the globe, leaving no one isolated. Then, somewhere in the middle of all this fighting, human against human, a new player enters the game. Vampires. Now it’s not so much about fighting someone because they’re beliefs are different than yours or their skin is different. Now it was a fight for survival against a superior predator.”

His red eyes opened to gaze at them. “Military scientists manage to isolate the reason behind the vampires, a blood born pathogen, when something truly unexpected happens in one of their labs. The virus, for lack of a better name, mutates, twisting into something that feeds on the vampiric strain the way the vampiric strain fed on human blood.”

“Crusniks,” agreed Leon with a nod of his head.

Abel shook his head. “Not at first, because they discovered that without a way to control the Crusnik virus, it would run unchecked and create something that not even the vampires could face. Thus, they turned to nanotechnology, but something was wrong. Every volunteer who was implanted with the virus and the nanites was either eaten from the inside out, went insane, or died a horrible death as their blood turned against them. Until one. Sargent Lilith Stahl of the United Nations Aerospace Forces.”

His gaze grew distant as he saw Lilith standing there in the sun of the space station, laughing with them at spending almost a month listening to music. “Once it was determined that she was able to withstand the virus and nanites, she was promoted and made an officer before she was used to create three more Crusniks in test tubes. Three children and Lilith were the only ones to survive. Two males and two females. Breeding pairs should anything happen.”

Leon muttered a few unkind things under his breath. “So, what? If Armageddon had continued, they would have expected both pairs to start popping out babies to be the next army?”

“Possibly,” agreed Abel, looking at both of them. Astha was paler than normal for a Methuselah, but Leon looked almost furious. “The three children were grown to various ages, the boys to their teenage years and the girl to about ten, and all four were trained to be the ultimate weapons against vampires. They were trained against torture, drugs, anything imaginable, and they were expected to be perfect little soldiers, going out to kill vampires for the good of humanity.”

“What happened?” The two words were whispered by Astha, and Abel turned his flat gaze towards her, feeling the painful cold he had lived with back then, swallowing his anger until it cut him like shards of broken glass.

“After almost fifteen years of being told we were no better than weapons, we revolted,” he admitted, his voice as flat as his eyes. “Cain, Seth, and I turned against humanity, helping the vampires kill and slaughter the weaker humans. Lilith continued fighting for humanity and urged us to return because the humans weren’t all bad, only a select few. Everything came to a head a few years later when Lilith sent word that she had convinced the military leaders to talk about a peaceful solution that wouldn’t result in either race being wiped out. Seth had become the unofficial leader of the vampires at that point, having gathered many of them under her for protection while I had been in almost constant contact with Lilith, trying to find my own way even as the senseless killing began to sicken me. Cain, who had been sort of a defacto leader, announced that he would go meet with Lilith alone in case it was a trap, that way the humans only had one of us and Seth and I could keep fighting if it turned out we were betrayed.”

A humorless laugh slipped out of him as the cold spread throughout his body, and he clutched the blanket even tighter, tears running down his face, unnoticed and unchecked. “We were betrayed but not by the one we had expected. Cain met with Lilith on the space station and killed her. When he failed to check in, Seth and I followed him, ready to tear the station apart to get him back, and he gladly presented us with Lilith’s body, like a dog delivering a fresh kill to its master. He claimed she was a bad influence on us. I freaked and pushed him into the airlock before Seth activated the cycle, ejecting Cain into space and throwing him back to the Earth.”

He was shivering now, but he didn’t notice, the cold gripping him tighter. “It should have killed him, but it didn’t. He’s back and trying to finish what he started centuries ago. Destroy the earth and remake it in his ideal image while he rules as a god. The Contra Mundi, Mein Herr of the Rosen Kruenz Order, Cain Nightlord, he has as many names as Satan and is just as nice. He manipulates, destroys, crushes anything good all while hiding behind an angelic facade. He set the Fleur du Mal up, set Deitrich on Esther and Gyula, manipulated Alfonso with the Silent Noise machine, set Ion up to be killed and framed for murder, imprisoned and tortured me through Francesco....” His voice trailed off as he shook harder, his teeth chattering with the cold that filled him, leaving him feeling brittle as if the wrong move would cause him to shatter inside and cut him worse than any knife possibly could.

Strong, warm hands were on his face, turning his gaze to meet blazing emerald, lit with love and concern. “Easy, Abel, relax and calm down,” soothed a familiar voice in his ear, and he found himself following his sister’s directions automatically.

“Cold,” he whispered through chattering teeth, and Seth brushed his bangs off his forehead as she piled another blanket around him.

“I know, but you’ll get warm quick enough with some hot food in you,” she murmured with a small smile. “Then I’ll get my seamstress up here to make you some new clothes, but over breakfast, we’ll start planning what to do to take out Cain for good.”

He nodded and curled a bit farther into the blankets, feeling them warm his skin but doing nothing to chase out the cold inside him. She pulled part of the blanket over his head before securing her own veil and the voice synthesizer. Then she pulled a nearby bell pull and waited, content to sit next to Abel who was huddled deep in the blankets, waving Astha towards a chair where the Duchess sat, her reluctance at sitting in the Empress’ presence visible on her face. Abel didn’t wonder about why Seth had covered his face, but actually relished the idea of hiding for a while.

The door opened and a maid with blond hair up in braids and blue eyes entered and curtseyed, her face tilting towards the floor. “How may I serve you, your Majesty?”

“Tamara, bring us a large breakfast to the informal dining room and send Marfa to us,” instructed Seth, her voice deeper thanks to the synthesizer, and the maid curtseyed before backing out the door.

“Ya know, she helped us get into your throne room without anyone else seeing us,” remarked Leon, and Abel looked up at him in surprise. He hadn’t really thought how they had gotten into the palace or up to Seth’s suite, but to know that Leon had charmed the maid into helping them made sense. The Spaniard could charm the birds out of the trees should he ever put his mind to it. “Of course, she was highly protective of you, Your Majesty. Threatened to stop us herself if we proved to be a threat to you.”

That got a small chuckle out of Seth. “It appears I am developing protectors everywhere,” she remarked, amusement in her voice as she stood up. “The informal dining room is over there. Astha, if you will assist Leon, I will help Alexei.”

“Is that to be my name here, sister?” inquired Abel as Seth helped him stand. The cold made him feel as weak as a newborn, not helped by the fact that he had been fed only the stale bread and the water Francesco had forced down his throat to keep him alive. Plus his panicked rush from the room earlier hadn’t helped his condition any he was willing to bet.

Instead of replying, Seth only hummed absently, which meant that he should be able to figure it out himself, and he softly sighed, still feeling the urge to curl up somewhere until the world had taken care of its own problems. How had Cain survived his reentry into Earth’s atmosphere? He shouldn’t have been able to survive the deep vacuum of space before he was incinerated.

The smell of hot food slipped through his thoughts and dragged him back into the present where he discovered that he had been seated at a table that could seat a dozen people easily on the right hand side of his sister who was at the head of the table. Across from him was Astha and next to him was Leon. Seth’s veil had been raised in a way that it uncovered her mouth to allow her to eat but still concealed her face, and Abel reached up to tug the blanket a bit farther over his eyes even as he ducked his head, staring at the plate of food that had somehow materialized in front of him.

“So the only way we’ll be able to defeat Cain once and for all is to lure him into a trap where we choose the terrain and the fighters,” mused Seth after a few bites of her breakfast. “Then burn his body and seal his ashes in stone to keep him from reforming again.”

Reaching out with a trembling hand, Abel slowly started eating the soup, nearly moaning as it slid down his throat, chasing some of the cold away, and after a few more spoonfuls, he realized a few problems with Seth’s original assessment of Cain. “We would need to plan for any minions he brought with him. Especially Isaak and Dietrich.”

“And who are those jokers when they’re licking boots?” drawled Leon, twisting his wrist to flash the light off of his silver bangle.

“Isaak Fernand von Kampfer is Magician, and Dietrich von Lohengrin is Puppetmaster,” began Abel, his eyes firmly on his food as he talked. “They appear to be the most knowledgeable of Cain’s plans, as Dietrich manipulated the events in Istvan with the Star of Sorrow and here with the assassination attempt, and Isaak used the Silent Noise machine in Barcelona before nearly killing Catarina in Rome when Alfonso was trying to destroy the city.” he blinked back unexpected tears as the memory of Sister Noelle Bor’s death in Barcelona swept over him again.

Leon’s breath hissed through his teeth, causing Abel to look up at him to find a look of absolute fury on the Spaniard’s face. “That Isaak bastard’s the one that killed Sister Noelle, isn’t he?”

“He is the one who had activated the Silent Noise machine, but it was my fault she died.” The confession was whispered but everyone at the table heard Abel, and he swallowed, trying to get the lump out of his throat even as tears slipped out of his eyes. “If I hadn’t gotten so wrapped up in trying to stop Isaak as a human, I would have been able to stop him before he destroyed Barcelona.”

“Sister Noelle was an AX Agent,” Leon replied, his voice leaving no room for argument. “Every AX Agent knows that there’s a chance we’ll return in a pine box if things go wrong. Now answer me this; back on Never Island, why didn’t you fight Wendy and the other children as a Crusnik?”

“Because it wasn’t their fault they were like that, and I didn’t want to kill them,” stated Abel, believing that to be the only reason even though his mind was arguing that there was another reason all together.

Seth snorted. “Are you sure it wasn’t because your Crusnik form takes it out of you unless you’ve had a steady diet of Methuselah blood?” she asked sweetly, and Abel turned to glare at her, the effect spoiled by the fact that they were both hiding their faces. “Face it, brother. Her death wasn’t your fault any more than it was hers. She walked in with open eyes and did her job. You, on the other hand, were hurting from a poor diet and lack of nourishment for both your body and the virus.”

Abel growled and placed both hands on the table, pushing himself to his feet despite the shaking in his arms. “And how exactly was I suppose to do that at the Vatican? Only Catarina knew about me, because everyone else would have locked me in the dungeon long before now because they would have seen me as a monster.”

“Then how come the Professor knows about you too?” drawled Leon, sitting back enough to fold his arms across his chest. “He was the one testing the empty syringe that was found and verified that you’re the one who had been stuck with it from the Crusnik virus found in the blood that had been left on the needle.”

He sat down in his chair hard as his legs gave out. “What?” he whispered, unable to believe his ears. “But Catarina was suppose to be the only one. Gunslinger might have had an idea after dealing with Elise, and Esther actually saw me in my Crusnik form in Carthago.”

“Brother Petros did too which is why he was willing to help get you out of the dungeon,” Leon reminded him. “He owed you a debt for saving his life in Carthago.”

“The Inquisition’s Knight of Destruction owed you a life debt?” Astha asked, her eyes large with surprise. “I must know what led to that, tovarash.”

Abel’s hand was taken and a warm metal goblet was pressed into it before his fingers were curled around the heated gold.

“Drink that first, and once you have calmed some, then you can tell us,” instructed Seth, and Abel closed his eyes as the scent of the thick, rich blood swirled through his head. Raising the goblet to his lips, he slowly drained it, enjoying the chance to linger and savor the taste of the blood as it slid over his tongue and down his throat, chasing out more of the cold that the hot soup had missed.

“You are going to have a steady diet of both food and blood even if I have to hunt your ass down and force it down your throat, brother,” growled Seth, and Abel opened his eyes to find his sister had moved her veil off to one side to glare at him with hard emerald eyes that would broke no argument on his part. “You are much too skinny for my piece of mind. Until you’re back up to my standards, you’re going to do as I say.”

A hand slapped Abel on the shoulder, and he glanced over to find Leon smirking at him. “Just a friendly bit of advice. When a woman like that gives an order, it is in your best interest to obey it.”

Nodding, Abel returned his attention to his soup as he gathered his thoughts. He wasn’t use to anyone other that Catarina being concerned about him and anymore, it seemed like she was more concerned about him as an agent than him as a friend. His crimson eyes flickered to Astha who was patiently waiting for her explanation despite the curiosity on her face and he sighed.

“I arrived in Carthago the day after an attack was made on the Vatican Embassy there and a young Methuselah was shot by Father Tres,” Abel began, knowing he would have to fill in the past details for Seth and Astha. Knowing Leon, the Spaniard probably snuck in and read the mission report. “The attack also brought the Department of the Inquisition. I knew I had to get to your messenger first because Brother Petros and Sister Paula both have a reputation for killing first and asking questions sometime next century. I arrived to find Esther had disobeyed my orders to stay with Catarina and that we were only a few minutes ahead of the Inquisition. One thing led to another, Radu tried to kill Esther and Ion, proving that he was a Rosen Kruenz member, and we barely got away as Sister Paula apparently took care of Radu. Brother Petros jumped into the boat as we were escaping and agreed to a temporary truce until things could be settled. That night, we were making our way back to the Embassy when the Inquisition ships turned about the city because Radu had not only survived his battle with Sister Paula but had taken over the ships thanks to Cain’s hacking of their system. We confronted him not far from the Embassy with Esther protecting Ion as much as she could and Brother Pertos took several direct hits from the Goliath Tank, protecting Ion, but as he went down, I shifted into the Crusnik and destroyed the ship above us. Radu used the tank to blow off my left arm and shoulder, and I admit that I used the blood that Ion had lost to repair myself. For that theft, I owe him an apology.”

“And so you destroyed the tank and the bastard,” concluded Leon with a nod. “I’m glad that Petros is an honorable bastard and didn’t decide to smuggle you down to the dungeons for a one on one session earlier. You should have seen the expression on his face when he cornered me in the hallway after finding out what had happened to you. I never realized he had another emotion other than righteous fury, but he was really torn up inside that his cardinal was doing something like that to you.”

The polite knock on the door herald the arrival of an older human woman, her gray streaked hair pinned up on her head in elaborate braids, but her wrinkled face still held the beauty she enjoyed in her youth. Walking over to the table, she curtseyed deeply, her eyes fixed on the floor. “You wished to speak with me, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, Marfa,” began Seth, her veil back in place as she relaxed in her chair as if the past few minutes had not happened. “You will clean the Crown Prince Alexi Vradica’s quarters for him and his companion whom has sought sanctuary with us. Also, alert the master of the Guard that We will be using the training room when possible, and inform our seamstress that Crown Prince Alexi and his companion will need a wardrobe suitable for their position.”

Marfa curtseyed again before backing out of the room, and Seth rose to her feet. “Unfortunately, I have Court all day today and petty boot lickers wanting something from me,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Abel, you’re going to march yourself into my bedroom and get some sleep after you’ve eaten your fill. Leon, consider yourself banished there as well. I’ll have food brought up early afternoon, but you are both to sleep yourselves out.”

“Don’t I get a say in any of this?” grumbled Abel, picking up his spoon again and eating his cooler soup.

“Nope,” chirped Seth, leaning over to gently kiss his cheek. “Consider yourself under doctor’s orders, because I will get you back into shape and able to take on Cain. I’ll also do my best to get a message to your pretty cardinal, letting her know that you’re safe and recovering before she frets herself grayer than you.”

She turned with a rustling of skirts to face Astha. “Duchess, you may use my room as well if you wish to rest after being dragged out at such an unearthly hour or you may return to your own estate. Either way, consider yourself welcome to visit at any time.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Astha said with a low bow. “I will not abuse your gift.”

With one last wave of her fingers, Seth swept out of the room with her skirts swishing around her legs, and Abel glanced at the other two before digging back into the food, eating with more manners than he had displayed the last time he had eaten in front of Astha. But then, the starving priest who inhaled any food that came near him was all part of the act he had played for many years.

For several minutes, they sat in silence, eating the food on the table, before Abel finally pushed his empty bowl and plate aside, his belly comfortably full for the first time in quite a while. A quick glance at the others showed that they were picking at their food, indicating their own full states, and he slowly stood up, feeling much better than he had before. He folded the blanket to keep it closed around his shoulders before glancing at Leon, who was glaring at his swollen knee in disgust.

“I can help you to the bedroom,” Abel offered, holding out a hand that did not tremble any longer even if it was still tipped with the black claws of the Crusnik.

Smirking, Leon slid his hand into Abel’s and pulled himself to his feet, keeping his weight off of his injured leg. “If I didn’t know any better, Abel, I’d say you were flirting with me,” purred the Spaniard, and Abel blushed bright red as he realized just how his words had been taken.

“You know better,” retorted Abel even though there was little heat in his voice, and together they hobbled to the room Seth had vanished into when she had changed clothing.

It was large and airy with doors that probably led into a closet while a vanity sat in front of a large mirror with all sorts of things on it that Abel knew he didn’t have a chance to identify without his sister or Catarina there. The four poster bed itself looked large enough for all of the senior agents of the AX and Catarina to sleep there with room left over, and emerald curtains were pulled back to reveal thick blankets turned back in a silent invitation. Abel felt his eyelids droop at the sight even as he stifled a yawn, and he helped Leon into the bed before he shrugged the blanket off as he slid under the covers. Dimly, he was aware of warm, strong arms pulling him against a hard chest as a heart beat under his ear before consciousness was swept away again.

This time, the warmth kept the nightmares at bay.

@@@

Standing off to one side, Seth watched her brother as he gracefully moved across the floor, his slender legs encased in a pair of black pants as his bare feet whispered across the floor and his loose silver hair swirling around him. It had only been a few weeks but a steady diet of Methuselah blood and food had done wonders for Abel’s healing, and Seth was pleased to see that he had even managed to gain some of the weight he had lost through the years.

A stereo was in a corner, the volume turned down to a bearable level for both Crusnik and Methuselah hearing, and Seth shook her head at Abel’s choice in music this afternoon. The dark music was a good indication of his mood, vaguely recognizing the band as something from Pre-Armageddon, that first decade of 2000 she was sure. They had all sorts of strange music then, but Abel enjoyed some of it.

‘Heaven ablaze in our eyes/ We’re standing still in time/ The blood on our hands is the wine/ We offer a sacrifice,’ sang the male lead, his voice sounding like a desperate pleading even as he managed to almost purr the words. ‘Come on and show them your love/Rip out the wings of a butterfly/For your soul, my love/Rip out the wings of a butterfly/ For your soul/ This endless mercy mild/ We’re crawling side by side/ With Hell freezing over in our eyes/ Gods kneel before our crimes.’

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the song was speaking more to Abel than it had any right to, and Seth shook her head again. Abel was still blaming himself for what had happened in the past, probably everything from Lilith’s murder to his torture at the hands of Cardinal Crazy, but at least he was focused now on fighting and training to meet Cain.

Seth knew that while she might be able to match Cain in abilities, he far outweighed her in sheer mass and strength, leaving only Abel anywhere near equal footing to the bastard, and Abel was determined to refine his abilities until they were as lethal as he could possibly make them. Because Abel was determined that this time, when he faced Cain, it would be the last time.

The song ended as Abel moved through a series of complicated looking moves with the staff in his hands, and Seth quietly toed off her shoes as she heard the stereo click to the next song, the faint strands of violins tuning informing her that the next selection would be perfect for dueling her brother.

She always had loved the strange and eerie music of the Danse Macabre Opus 40.

When the strange violin chords started, Seth had shifted to her Crusnik form and attacked Abel who was taken by surprise. He stumbled back a few steps, blocking her attack with the staff before it snapped under the force, and he used those few seconds to shift into his Crusnik from and summoned his blood scythe before whirling out of the way. Laughing, she summoned her tridents and attacked him, forcing him to defend himself before they fell into an almost dance of attack and defend that followed the waltzing music.

Their actions were controlled by the music. As it slowed, so did they, glowing red eyes watching and analyzing for any weaknesses, muscles tense and ready for the beat to quicken. Blow were exchanged, defenses tested, the music gathered force as the crescendo approached, teasing them with the furious pace they knew was creeping on them.

Suddenly, the music exploded into a fury of violins and trumpets, and in a flurry of wings, they came together, moving faster than a normal human or Methuselah could see. They bounced off the walls, the ceiling, crashing together again and again, weapons clashing with the sound of metal being struck by a furious blacksmith. Laughter and growls mixed with the music, and Seth was enjoying herself for the first time in centuries.

Then, the music slowed again, approaching the end of the opus, and they slowed as well, their actions less like attacks and more like a friendly dance with weapons. When the music stopped completely, Seth and Abel collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath and laughing like lunatics as they banished their weapons and returned to their human forms.

“Gods, I haven’t had that much fun in forever,” gasped Seth, her hair in disarray while her shirt was cut in several places and stained with blood in a few more.

Abel spread his arms out, laughing breathlessly as his skin knitted itself back together, leaving only the few bloodstains as any indication that he had been injured in the first place. “There hasn’t been anyone I could have sparred with like that since we shut the stations down behind us,” he confessed, a silly grin on his face. “Damn, I missed that.”

Seth giggled a bit more before settling down. “I hate to bring it up, but do you know of any way to lure Cain out?” she sighed and laced her hands behind her head. “Frankly, I’m at a dead end.”

She could feel Abel stiffen next to her, but waited, knowing he would only talk in time and if she pressured him, he would clam up tighter than a virgin on her wedding night.

“I have one idea, but it would be *very* dangerous for everyone involved,” he confessed, his voice soft and heavy with what he wasn’t saying. She sat up to look at him, and he closed his eyes, summoning the words from deep inside him along with the strength to voice his idea. “A peace conference between the human kingdoms and the Methuselan Empire would pull him out of his hiding hole faster than anything. It would be his chance to kill all of the leaders and get everyone pointing fingers at each other before weapons were brought out.”

Seth nodded, her mind whirling as old military tactics and centuries of leadership played various scenarios out in her head. “And with his Rosen Kruenz Order, Cain could manipulate everyone until there were no real powers left, allowing him to step in and pick up the pieces.” She wrapped her arms around her knees as she stared down at Abel. “It is a high risk and one that’s very calculated, but it might be our only chance to topple that organization and take the bastard down for good.”

Abel quickly sat up, wrapping his arms around himself. “No, I can’t let you do that. The risk to you and the human leaders is too great. And I didn’t factor in Dietrich or Isaak. I might be able to face Cain, but if those two come along, any guards there would be sitting ducks for them and then the leaders would be helpless against them.”

“You’re forgetting that I’ll be there and I’m hardly helpless,” drawled Seth, scooting around to sit in front of Abel, her arms folded across her chest. “I can be the final line of defense should anyone break into the chamber with the leaders. Plus I’m sure your pretty cardinal would be there to protect her brother and from what I remember, Esther’s no slouch with a gun either.”

“Plus, I can guarantee that Catarina will bring almost the entire AX Senior Agents which means Sister Kate and the Iron Maiden will be close by for an emergency evacuation,” remarked a new voice as Leon hobbled over on his crutches to flop on the ground next to them. He grinned at Abel. “Toss that many agents in the same room, and any vampire stupid enough to go after them would regret it, especially with Sword Dancer in the room.”

Seth glanced at Leon in surprise. “What’s so special about this Sword Dancer?”

Leon shrugged a shoulder. “The guy’s crazy about killing vampires to the point where he’ll vanish on Catarina to hunt down some.”

“Father Hugue de Watteau, the only male survivor of the de Watteau massacre in Amsterdam,” remarked Abel, causing Seth and Leon to look at him. “His arms were cut off to keep him from fighting back but were replaced by cybernetic arms after his recovery. His younger sister vanished that night, apparently kidnaped by the attackers, and Sword Dancer has been desperately trying to track her down as well as locate the ones responsible for the attack and slaughter of his family.”

The Spaniard stared at Abel in surprise. “Okay just how do you know so much about him?” Leon asked, folding his arms across his chest. “I know how you know about me ‘cause I vaguely remember buying the alcohol.”

Abel smiled slightly at Leon. “I was Catarina’s second in command and helped her recruit most of the AX by making contact and taking offers to them,” he confessed, shrugging a shoulder. “I had to know about each of you to be able to approach you correctly and adjust the offer if needed. But then, she only sent me out to recruited the ones that she really wanted in the AX.”

“I thought either Vaclav or the Professor were her second,” mused Leon, a thoughtful look on his face, and Abel laughed, softly.

“That’s what everyone’s suppose to think, especially since they don’t go out on missions while I’m sent out on things that have the possibility of turning really, really bad where a normal human has the chance of returning home in a box.” Abel’s eyes grew far away and a haunted look appeared as Leon wrapped a free arm around the pale shoulders, and he pulled Abel over to rest against him. In Seth’s eyes, they looked extremely comfortable together, and she wondered why they hadn’t gotten together before and if they were going to now that they didn’t have any pressure from the Vatican.

Quietly, Seth stood up and slipped out of the room. She had plans to make, and she wasn’t going to get in the way of her brother’s happiness. Even if he didn’t know what it would take to make him happy

@@@