Trinity Blood: Book 2: The Winter Rose
Chapter 13: Then there were Four
Abel tore his gaze from the starry night and looked at William. The night was a little nippy seeing as it was middle of fall. "We should head out, if you're able to stand," Abel suggested. He wasn't cold, but the temperature was just down there for humans.
"Yes, I think I can," William nodded and stood.
"There you are!" an angered voice made Abel leap to his feet and turn. What he saw nearly made him jump out of his skin.
"What the!" Abel exclaimed, falling back and starting at the ghostly figure before them. In the night she seemed to glow softly. Her clothes that of an initiate sister of the church, blue rimmed with white. She even wore a cross, but this didn't change the fact she was ghost. "Are you – are you a…"
"Hologram," the nun sniffed as she folded her arms across her chest. "I'm sure the professor here already told you I'm in a coma, so how else did you think he was able to teach me?" She looked at him with blue eyes. "You know you're rather jumpy for one of your height," she observed.
Grumbling, Abel stood and managed to smile at her. "Yes, well you see, I thought you were a ghost there for a second, miss," he replied sheepishly. Well, it was safe to say he had the fool act down enough he was actually starting to act like one subconsciously or he was just on edge for them day's events.
"It's Sister Kate Scott," Kate looked at him sternly, seeming rather unimpressed with him. Good, he didn't want to draw attention. At least he might go unnoticed if people were unimpressed with him. Who knew, he might even start to get attention by being beaten one day. Wait, why the hell was he hoping for that? Abel was about to introduce himself when he noticed Kate was speaking with William. "We should get you to a hospital, Professor," she said, looking William's bloodied leg. Abel looked at her for a moment debating if he should be hurt by her rudeness or just ignore it. Shrugging, he decided to ignore it.
"Well, William, it looks like you're in good hands," Abel clapped William on the shoulder, smiling at the two of them. "I'll be off then," Abel dropped the shot gun and made to start off towards the hotel, but he paused and looked over his shoulder at the two of them. William seemed caught between listening to Kate and following Abel.
Sighing, Abel continued to walk. It didn't matter in the long run. He was just there, a stranger, someone people would pass up as odd or just not there. Now he was beginning to see why Cain had been in everyone's face all the time. It was the only way he had been able to get attention. Well, Abel didn't want attention and he sure as hell didn't want to be his brother.
"Abel, wait!" Abel stopped and turned just in time to see William, limping after him an annoyed hologram in toe. "You said you were here with the Duchess of Milan," he said as he caught up with Abel. Abel nodded, trying to see what the man was getting at. "Well, perhaps Sister Kate and I could be of some assistance to your group. We know our way around Londinium as well as many of the people here."
Abel was about to agree with them coming when Kate shouted, "You want to go with this idiot, are you serious, Professor Wordsworth?" Idiot? She'd just seriously called him an idiot. Abel was ready to argue this with her, but stopped, realizing he was being foolish. The nine hundred year old who over reacted to being called an idiot, ha, what a joke he was!
"I think Lady Sforza would be more than happy to have more help," Abel replied, doing his best to ignore Kate. Humans, who could figure them, or maybe it was just women he had troubles with. Abel started off once more, setting a slow pace so the wounded professor would be able to keep up. It took them nearly two hours to reach the hotel Caterina was staying at. When Abel entered the rooms he found himself facing Havel. The man looked ready to attack both Abel and those with him. "Wait, Havel, their good," Abel said hurriedly, not wanting blood to be spilt over the fact he had just brought back two people, one of which was a ghost.
Havel straightened, his hand returning to normal, but his eyes were watchful. William limped forward, not seeming bothered Havel had been about to cut off his head. Smiling around his pipe, he extended his hand in greeting to Havel, "I'm William Walter Wordsworth a former professor at the University of Londinium."
Havel took the professor's hand, introducing himself to the man, "Father Vaclav Havel." Looking around William, Havel said, "Oh, and Abel, you might want to speak with Lady Sforza."
Before Abel could respond two things occurred. One Caterina appeared in the door to her room and two Kate was before Havel, exclaiming happily on how much she'd heard about him. Looking between annoyed and confused, Caterina crossed the room to Abel, "You're late," she jabbed her finger at him, one hand on her hip as she looked at him sternly. It almost reminded Abel of a mother chiding her child who was way past curfew. "Not only are you late, Abel, but you bring back two strangers. What if they were part of the Orden?"
"Then the Orden are really strange," Abel said, smiling. "I seriously doubt they're part of the Orden, Caterina, they're really not the type of people…" he trailed off at the sweetly creepy smile Caterina was giving. He shivered. This girl was getting scarier and scarier by the day. Soon he'd be far more scared of her than any human and that was saying something.
"Well, even still, you have no right to be nearly a day late," Caterina glared up at him. "Do you have any idea how worried you can make people? You've never been late before. Don't you ever do so again!"
"I, well – I," Abel stammered, feeling rather cornered by the way Caterina was acting. It was strange being chewed out by someone so young. Even still the girl had away to make him feel small. "Well, you see I managed to get the information we needed, but I was, umm, sort of captured along the way," Abel tried to explain.
"Really?" Caterina cocked an eyebrow, skeptically looking up at him. Well, this seemed rather one sided. At this rate he was more likely to convince the empire to enter a peace agreement with the Vatican than have any hope of convincing Caterina of the fact he had been captured.
"Really," William said on behalf of Abel's defense. "It took five tranquilizers to capture him, my lady," he explained. "They didn't have an easy time of it either, mark my words. I also assure you neither I nor my student are members of this Orden you speak of. In fact if Abel hadn't come along when he did, I would be awaiting execution or having my blood drunk by now. It's safe to say I owe him my life."
Kate glared at Abel, but didn't speak on this matter. "Why'd you bring them back?" Havel asked.
"Well, about that…" Abel trailed off not really sure how to put this. Abel was suddenly distracted by the fact all through this conversation and the last he hadn't heard the crusnik at all. Surely acting like an idiot would have made the whispering worse. Perhaps it wasn't the fact he was acting like an idiot, but the fact he hadn't been paying attention to the crusnik so it had decided to shut up… finally.
While Abel was pondering this Caterina had been speaking with William and Kate about what they were planning and the agency she envisioned. By the end of there talk Kate looked ready to jump on the bandwagon while Professor Wordsworth chewed thoughtfully on the steam of his pipe. Finally he smiled and shrugged, "I see no reason not to join. Besides it looks as if you are now in need of a teacher after what you described happening back in Milan. I would be more than happy to teach both you and Sister Kate."
At once Caterina brightened, but she didn't exclaim or shout. Instead she straightened her features and bowed her head to William, "Thank you, Professor Wordsworth."
"Now, Abel," William turned his gaze on Abel.
"Eh?" Abel looked back at him, highly confused to why he was being dragged back into the conversation. Last he'd checked they'd been discussing Caterina needing a teacher or had he missed something?
"You said you managed to get some information on the Orden before you were captured," William explained. "Perhaps you would care to enlighten the rest of us on what you discovered." Oh, that was what he was getting at.
"It seems the person targeting Caterina is someone codenamed Shadow and he might be the main leader of the Orden. He's planning on targeting Caterina at least once more while we are here," Abel slowly explained. "I wasn't able to gather more information before I was discovered, but…" he shrugged, trying to say without words, "What can you do?"
"At least we now know some about who is targeting me," Caterina pointed out. "It's better than what little we knew before. Besides I'm sure you didn't mean to get captured, Abel, and it did work out in our favor," she smiled at the two newest members of the one day will happen agency. "Now, I think all of us could do with some rest," Caterina turned, looking ready to head off to bed.
"I'll take over guard duty," Abel offered. Havel had been up straight for a day by now. Caterina glanced at Havel who smiled kindly at Abel. "You've been up for a day straight," Abel explained. Vaclav might not be showing any signs of being tired but he would be by now. With a nod of gratitude Vaclav vanished into one of the rooms. Caterina paused, looking as if she wanted to say something. She smiled instead and nodded to both William and Abel before going into her room. "What about you?" Abel asked, not looking at William.
"Hmm," William cocked an eyebrow at Abel, "I think I'll stay up for a bit." He took a seat on the couch and leaned back, resting his cane beside him. Abel leaned back against the wall and watched the door. Kate had vanished some time ago. Several long moments passed before William asked, "How many know what you are?"
"What?" Abel looked at him sharply, cricking his neck. "Well, apart from you only Caterina has seen that form. Why?" Abel suddenly felt wary of the man. Too many times had he been betrayed by scientists, it would take a lot to convince him another apart from his sister or Lilith could be trusted. Besides, why would William even want to know about the crusnik form? Abel knew his other side was far darker than his more human one.
"Just curious," William shrugged. A long silence followed this. Abel returned his attention to the door. It was hard to think of anything to say to William. The man seemed nice enough, but there was the fact the man was a scientist and Abel didn't trust scientists.
Finally Abel sighed and asked, "What is your reason for joining up with Caterina?"
"Hmm," William smiled around his pipe. "Well, I was intrigued by what she is proposing. The girl seems to know what she's doing at the very least. I admit, I look forward to working with you and Vaclav as well as Lady Sforza. It will make for a nice change of pace as well the fact we will be working towards protecting humans." William suddenly frowned. "Are you human? The Methuselah don't consider themselves human, but you're not a Methuselah."
"I'm a crusnik," Abel replied slowly. "I've never really considered myself human even before I – well, many years ago. If you must know, I've considered Methuselah and your people all human for many years. I only see the difference of what is in the blood, the bacillus which makes the Methuselah what they are."
William was silent, looking at Abel thoughtfully. "You seem to know a lot about the Methuselah. Are the crusniks somehow related to them?"
"No," Abel replied tersely, remembering the horror when he and his sister had discovered the truth. The bacillus had been created as the crusniks' food. "The only matter remotely the same about a crusnik and Methus – vampire is the fact we both need blood to live, but other than that…" he trailed off shrugging. "As I said, I consider them as human as any of you, just with the bacillus in their system. A crusnik is…" Abel hesitated, "you know I really don't how to describe a crusnik other than don't be near me when they take over completely."
"They?" William had caught Abel's wording and Abel winced. Damn, he really needed to be more careful when he spoke of the crusnik and how they had a separate mind from his own, and very different viewpoints.
"Unimportant," Abel locked his gaze on the door, folding his arms across his chest into a more defensive posture.
Silence fell once more. Soon Abel heard the deep, even breathing which signaled the fact William had fallen asleep. Glancing at the couch, Abel smiled. Sure enough William had fallen asleep, the pipe having fallen from his mouth to his hand. It must have hit William suddenly and Abel couldn't blame the man for being so tired. He'd been through hell since before Abel had met him. Sleep would do him some good at the very least.
"Humans are an interesting lot," Abel said, speaking to no and yet someone at the same time. "I can see why you wanted to protect them, Lilith." He touched the cross, a sad smile on his features. "They might very well be the ones to instigate change in this world. You were right all along about them, my love," he whispered the last part, his eyes closed as a tear silently slid down his cheek.
(Author's Note: Yes Caterina managed to get William to join as well as Kate. We know have four of the six founding members. We're still missing Hague and Tres. I don't think either of them enter in this book, so I'm sorry about that, but I just don't want all the founding members to appear the same year and in the history Tres isn't taken by Caterina until near the founding of the AX.
Also a note on the aging part of this William brings up, it was not in the actual notes but an idea I had while writing this which would explain why Methuselah die at 300 max and crusniks had continued to live through the centuries.)