I wonder who it could be? Tess thought.
She opened the front door, and gasped. There stood Vance. Tess opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
"Aw, Tess," he said. His voice was smooth, his eyes glinted. "It's so nice to see you again." His fake smile glistened in the Arizona sun.
"You… you…" she stammered, "How?"
"Aw, yes. You are remembering our, shall we say… experience… in Greece. Yes, that nasty fall that I took did not kill me completely. My spirit was broken, as was my body. But my mind was still alive.
"I lay there for hours, praying for death to take me. I woke up later in a soft bed. They told me that a fisherman had found me. I was thought dead, and brought to the local church. They called the doctor, the same one who had cared for you.
"When he came to look at my body, he said that I was no dead. He cared for me for days until I was well enough to be transported to a hospital in a near by city. There they were able to tend to my broken limbs.
"It seemed like I was stuck in the hospital for months. I had no visitors, no one to talk to; it almost drove me mad." He laughed. It was a cold and metallic sound that made Tess shiver.
"I thought I would never get out of there," he said. The laugh had gone; it was replaced by a serious voice. His eyes had turned hard and cold.
"When I did get out of there," he said, "all I could think about was one thing: that was you, Tess." He took a step forward. Tess stood her ground in the doorway. "All I could think about was what you had done. How much pain you had caused me, how much you had cost me…" his voice trailed away.
"What do you want?" Tess asked, her voice equally as cold now. "The documents are gone. You can't get them back."
"I know that," he said. Their eyes met before he continued, "But I am looking for something else. Something greater than the documents… It will, unfortunately, not bring down the church directly from the start; but it will give them something to think about."
He was moving forward, closer to Tess. She backed off, retreating into the house. In one fluid motion, he grabbed her shoulders and put a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming.
"What I am looking for," he whispered, "is more valuable than any sum of money that you could ever imagine. I am trying to find the Templar Treasure. And when I have that money, I will be able to reform the Templars. And then do you know what I'm going to do?" Tess shook her head, eyes wide. "We will take down the damn church for good!" Vance almost shouted. He started to laugh again. Tess was trembling, but he did not loosen his grip on her shoulder.
Then there came a noise from the doorway. "Tess!" It was Sean. "Tess!"
Vance turned. "What's he doing here?" he hissed.
Sean and Vance locked gazes for a moment before Sean's lit up with remember. "You!" he said, "Get away from her, you bastard!" He charged at Vance, who easily side stepped him, and pulled out a gun from his jacket.
Tess screamed and tried to run, but Vance was too quick .He had the gun held to her head. "Don't move," he hissed. She froze, and watched as Sean got up from the floor, breathing hard. He slowly raised his hands into the air.
"Don't shoot," he said calmly.
"Don't worry," Vance responded, "I wouldn't hurt Tess. Why would I kill her if she could help he recover what I am looking for?" He started to back out of the house dragging Tess with him. Sean started forward, but Vance drew the gun away from Tess and pointed it at Sean. He stopped, and watched helplessly as Vance vanished with Tess.
Bastard, Sean thought. He should have died when he fell off that cliff. I don't know how the hell he survived that.