Title: Beauty of the Beast

Disclaimer: I own none of the original story; it all belongs to some other guy.

Summary: The poor young Pope gets kidnapped by a roughly group of vampires. Petro isn't there to personally defend him, so who's gonna help out the poor boy? A stranger, that's who, and Petro is going to be none to happy to find this OC roaming about.

Warnings: There's gonna be m/m relations later… way later… and probably quite a bit of gore, well, not a lot, but some.

Chapter 1 Prologue.

Allessandro was walking through the halls of the Vatican, preparing himself for the trip to the city of Dulor. A group of Methuselah had sent word that they had developed new research on ancient technology that would be very useful to the Vatican, and for the people. Allessandro was going to go there personally to see what they had found and whether or not it was as useful as they hoped.

"You're Holiness; I must disagree with this decision. We cannot risk having you go out to see these vampires!" Petros deep voice carried down the hall as Allessandro turned to face him.

The boy sighed. This wasn't the first time Petros had let his disapproval on the matter show. "Please Petros. I'm just going to see what they have to offer. That is my job, isn't it? As the Pope, it's my responsibility to decide what is best for the people." He spoke with more confidence than he had in previous years. The last escapade that he was involved in had shown him how important he really was to the people. How important his job was.

Petros was still skeptical. Being the chief caretaker of the young boy, he was extremely overprotective of him. He was not happy with the decision, and there was nothing Allessandro, or anyone else, could do to curb his displeasure. "Yes you're Holiness. But I highly suggest you reconsider. Perhaps you could send a decoy? At the very least?"

Allessandro shook his head. Petros almost growled in frustration. "Fine. I am sending half my guard with you." Allessandro opened his mouth to protest the use of such force. Petros cut him off before he could even begin. "The most elite of my men will be there to protect you. In the event that something should happen during this meeting."

Allessandro sighed and gave Petros a small smile. "Thank you. It's a shame that you cannot also accompany my on this trip. I understand how skeptical you are about letting me go." Allessandro almost chuckled, but he knew that Petros would misinterpret it. The man did have a good reason for his skepticism, considering the last situation.

"It is a shame. I may trust my men, but not as much as I trust in my own strength." He glared ahead as the two of them continued to walk through the halls together.

Three weeks ago, Petros had sworn that he would help the sisters out with multiple new recruits to his own faction. He was responsible for the new recruits and wanted to make sure they were settled before training began, but that could take several days. He was regretting the decision now. He knew that if anything happened to the young Pope while he was not there, he would never forgive himself.

Allessandro seemed to know what he was doing, going to this strange city, and Petros continued to try and calm his frayed nerves by telling himself that his mind was just getting the best of him. The Pope would not be alone, he was taking twelve of his best men. Of course, Cardinal Caterina was also sending six of her own men, none of the AX members, but still capable of defending his Holiness.

The following day, Petros found himself standing next to the convoy of trucks, along with several men on horseback, that were taking the Pope to Dulor. The trip should take roughly two and a half days to reach the city. Petros had made sure that they would send a messenger back to them to report their arrival.

Throughout the first day, Petros found himself continuously glancing at the road. He always chastised himself for it, knowing that there would be no word for at least another day, but he couldn't help it.

He had been showing the new recruits to their rooms that night when one of the sisters had urgently called for him. "Brother Petros! Come quick, it's one of Sister Caterina's men! He's in the infirmary!"

Petros wasted no time in running through the halls of the Vatican, on edge. Wondering what could have happened. One of Caterina's men was in the infirmary. That could only mean that there had been an attack. When he reached the doorway, he was not expecting the sight that awaited him. Caterina's man was being forcefully pushed back onto one of the beds.

"I must speak with Petros… he…" The man glanced up to see Petros in the doorway. "Sir!"

Petros was frozen. The sister's had removed his armor, and laid it on the floor. The man had a dangerous looking gash along his chest and multiple wounds along his stomach and arms. His armor had been forcefully broken through with some type of blade, or very long axe.

"Petros, sir. I… I'm sorry. We tried to fight them off, but there were too many of them. I'm sorry… So sorry. We were taken by surprise… A band of vampires. They came from the mountains… They were so fast… we couldn't… They took him… They took his Holiness!"

Petros was shaking, whether in anger or fear he couldn't tell. "Where. Where did they take him?" His fists were clenched, one hand crushing the door frame.

"The mountains. I heard them say something about caves to the north." The sisters finally managed to force him back to the bed as they began cleaning and dressing his wounds.

Petros ran from the room. He wasted no time in recruiting his remaining men that were trained well enough to defend themselves. Within two hours, he was ready, with a small army of just over fifty of his own men, and a few more than twenty of Caterina's men. Caterina was also sending Abel and Vaclav.

Petros had gathered multiple armored trucks and together the small army made their way towards the caves.

Author's Note: So, last time, I was up till 6 am working on the original. This time I was up till roughly 4 am. Sorry for the complete revamp of this story, for those of you that liked my really shitty writing before. I recently re-found my password… and this account, and decided that when I wrote this [a year ago] it was too short. So I rewrote it. It's longer now, and more detailed than before. Please ignore any mistakes, I was probably too tired to notice at the time.

And please read and review, yadayadayada.