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Translated: Cleo28
Beta: Moonjat54 (Thanks so much, Jat)
25. Veri Domini Mundi
Lily was about to follow Gabriel's request, when he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him. At that moment she realized that it was too late to reach the safety of the interior of the castle. Lily watched in horror as the intruders took out of action the two guards at the main gate without major difficulty. A single sword blow had killed the surprised guards who had had no more opportunity to defend themselves. Lily was standing a few meters away, but she could see the serious wounds that were inflicted to the men, or at least she had a clear idea, because of the great amount of blood that covered their clothing.
The next moment, Lily was aware that the attackers were vampires, because some of them jumped from the non-covered part of the battlements on the castle wall to the ground. The guards weren´t taken by surprise, but they had no chance against the enemy vampires. To Lily's horror, the vampires allowed themselves time to kill their victims. Frozen like a stone statue Lily was standing behind Gabriel and could not take off her eyes off the massacre on the castle wall. A vampire dismembered the young man standing in front of him and even from this distance she could see the satisfied expression that the cruel vampire had on his face. He seemed to take pleasure in killing and torturing his victims. The screams of the dying ones were burned in Lily's memory.
Another undead attacker had laid his sword down and had pressed another guard against the brick wall, pushing the man's head to the side and violently rammed his fangs in the throat of his victim. The cry of pain which the boy let out froze Lily's blood. Her heart raced and her logical sense told her that she would not survive this attack. There were just too many vampires. The people had no real opponent for about thirty vampires who had obtained entry into the castle in such a violent way. And in this castle, there were only three vampires. What could three vampires do against thirty?
Only subconsciously did Lily hear that Gabriel was giving orders. "Barricade yourselves in the castle!" Lily did not know how long the attack had lasted. She could not say as her sense of time had completely disappeared. Had it been only seconds or even hours?
Finally she managed to free herself from her frozen state and turned away her gaze from the castle wall. Her eyes flew full of panic to the castle gate, through which came more attackers. To Lily's surprise, she saw how Diann, Albin and Svafa fought against six vampires. They seemed to be a good team. Each one of this trio knew exactly what the other one was doing. Amazingly, these attacking bloodsuckers were inferior to the three. How could that be? Svafa and Albin were humans and they fought against the vampires, as if there was no difference between them, but the next moment the difference became clear. The vampire who had raised his sword against Svafa, was moving too quickly for Lily's eyes and immediately Svafa´s sword flew a few yards through the air and landed with a clatter on the cobblestone ground of the castle yard. Why did she have a sword? Lily had learned that it was forbidden for women to learn how to fight, or even to carry a sword. She did not like Svafa, but to see her to be at the vampire´s mercy, she had compassion for this woman and Lily wanted to act. She had to help her. Lily had no idea how, but she had to help her. But before she could even make a move, she felt Gabriel's hand on her arm, pulling her back and with a concerned, but also commanding voice he said: "You stay here!"
Briefly she had removed her gaze from Svafa and when she turned her gaze back towards her, she observed Svafa ramming a stake into the heart of the vampire. She could not believe it! How did she manage that so suddenly? And how was it even possible to defeat this vampire?
In the corner of her eye she saw something flying through the air. She did not want to think about what that had been as immediately her attention was directed to the fight in her vicinity. Azrael fought alone against five vampires. Lily could not say for sure, but his movements and his successful sword blows told her that she was watching a well-trained warrior fight. No, not a warrior. She saw a real Assassin and as impressive as it was, it was also scary for Lily.
Lily could not help feeling guilty because Gabriel had been kept out of the fight thus far and stood protectively in front of her. He made no move to step away from her. His hand still held her arm. She could not say for sure, but it seemed as if he were fighting a battle with himself as to whether he should fight or protect her.
But sooner or later Gabriel had to intervene and had to give up his protective position in front of Lily. Faster than Lily could think the situation changed. Two vampires had managed to get by Azrael and attacked Gabriel. Lily could not follow the events before her eyes easily, because everything went too fast for human perception. Gabriel had just moved a few paces away with a raised sword and the next moment the two vampires were beheaded and lay at Gabriel's feet.
Suddenly someone touched her on the shoulder and Lily spun around startled. Relieved, she let out her breath when she saw Jack. He gestured with his hand to the small door on the right side of the building. There was no fighting there and if they ran fast, maybe they would reach the door unnoticed. Lily briefly turned to Gabriel, who was now forced to fight against the attacking vampires and could no longer play Lily's bodyguard.
Lily's feelings were a mess. Fear and anxiety alternated in her regularly and she was really impressed with how Azrael and Gabriel knew how to wield the swords. Gabriel had mastered the art of sword fighting better than Azrael.
Lily squeezed Jack's hand. He gave her a felling of security despite this cruel and dangerous situation. But why did they still stay here? Why wait in this danger zone? Jack had given her to understand that they should run to the side door.
Suddenly at the same time Gabriel and Azrael shouted "Now!" Jack and Lily ran to the door. She ran as fast as she could and halfway there she heard Gabriel's worried voice angrily shouting: "NO!" And the next moment, Lily was jerked backwards and Jack's hand disappeared from hers. Her breath caught as she saw that Jack was thrown by a vampire into the stone wall and he hit the hard ground unconscious and then her throat was grabbed. She tried to free herself of her tormentor's iron grip, but with every movement she made, the pain in her arm became greater and a grief-stricken gasp escaped her. She had to watch that vampire slowly turn on Jack.
The next moment she was turned around by the vampire who held her in an excruciatingly tight grip and she was sure she would hear at any moment the crack of her arm. His silvery-white eyes were staring at her carotid artery and a split second later, his fangs pierced into her neck. The pain was immediate. An unbearable pain. In contrast Azrael´s bite had been a caress. Tears sprang to her eyes and she could not suppress a cry of pain. She felt the strange and violent vampire greedily sucking her blood from her veins. He did not bother to make the bite to be comfortable for victims. And why? This vampire wanted to kill. It was not about a voluntary blood donation. No, he wanted her blood. Lily tried to fight back, but she was trapped in his iron grip and could not get free.
Her eyelids became heavy and closed slowly. Only dimly did, she still notice the fighting around her. And suddenly the pain was gone from her neck and from her arms. She felt that a hand carefully and gently slid around her waist and her knees and the next moment she lost the ground under her feet. Someone was carrying her. Struggling against this weariness, she forced her eyes open. She had to see who it was. Although her feelings told her that she was safe, she had to know. Gabriel. It was Gabriel, who carried her. She did not know where she got the power because her arms and legs felt heavy and they did not really want to obey, but she put her arms around Gabriel's neck and pressed herself against him. The old vampire responded to Lily´s gesture by hugging her tighter.
In Lily's head the final minutes replayed and a bitter cold feeling ran through her. Where was Jack? What happened to Jack? Jack!
"Jack?" Lily asked shakily, hoping for good news. He just had to be okay. Nothing might be happened to him. He was her guardian angel. What would she do without him?
"He's fine," Gabriel said and Lily breathed in relief. "He only has a laceration on his head."
Apparently they had achieved their goal, because Gabriel leaned down now, and Lily felt something soft under her. But she didn´t want to let go of him. She could not. She still needed his nearness and his security. She needed him. Lily was terrified of her own feelings. What was going on with her? But she also didn´t want to think about it further, she wanted to enjoy this moment. Slowly, Gabriel´s arms let go of her and she still continued to cling to him, her arms around his neck. She did not want to lose this closeness now. She was just not ready for it. Gabriel's hands were on Lily's arms and he tried very gently to disengage her grip. But Lily did not let go. It would not have been a problem for Gabriel to shed Lily's embrace. He did not, but his arms now wrapped around Lily's waist and she could have burst with joy. Her mind told her that she should actually feel different now, especially with what she had just experienced. She always felt protected and secure with Jack, but in comparison the feeling that she had now and had never felt so strongly in Gabriel's presence before, was overwhelming. She was home.
Lily had vehemently fought against this feeling of tiredness, but now it came back with a vengeance and slowly her eyes closed. Her arms sank down slowly. Just before she fell into a deep sleep, she felt a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Lily did not know how long she had been asleep, when she opened her eyes and discovered she was in her room. It was dark again or still dark? She looked around her room and found out that she was alone. Too quickly she swung her legs out of bed and straightened up. Immediately she felt dizzy. This had had to be because of the high blood loss. She clutched at her head, took a few deep breaths and then stood up slowly. It worked. The dizziness was gone.
Pictures of the attack ran through her mind's eye and she automatically reached for her neck. Lily could feel the two puncture points and the dried blood that was there. She went to the closet and brought out of her bag a small mirror. She breathed deeply, as she looked. Her neck was covered with dried blood and a few strands of hair were also glued to it with blood. She looked down at herself. Her dress was also splattered in blood. She looked terrible.
After she had washed off the blood and put on a new dress, she made her way to find the others and to get something to eat, because she had a ravenous hunger and thirst, her mouth was very dry.
On the way to her living room she met Agatha, who greeted her with a smile. "Lily, I'll get you something to eat. Do you want to have it in your favorite room?" Agatha said, and Lily nodded. Lily walked into the room and sat down at the small table. No one was here. It did not take long and Agatha was there with the food once more. It felt so good to have something in her stomach and the jug of water, which Agatha had put on the table was empty in no time. Now she felt much better.
Just where were all the others? She should have asked Agatha. Determinedly, she rose from her chair and went to the great hall, maybe they were all there. As Lily walked into the large room, it was empty at first glance. Burning torches on the walls and candles provided a small light so there must have been someone here a short time ago.
Lily turned around and was about to leave the room when she heard rattling chains and a deep voice: "Well, who do we have here? The little girl with the rare blood."
Lily's heart began beating faster now and fear spread in her heart. Slowly she turned back and saw the vampire, who wanted to kill her a few hours ago. Iron shackles that were attached to thick, heavy chains and were set into the stone wall were encircling his wrists. The vampire had noticed Lily's look at his shackles and jerked at the chains not with vampire strength, but rather with the strength of a man. Lily shuddered and immediately backed away a bit.
The prisoner began to laugh. He seemed to enjoy making Lily fear him. Seconds later Gabriel, Azrael, Diann and Jack entered the hall through another door. Immediately, their eyes were on Lily, who stood rooted in the middle of the room.
"Lily," Jack began, and hurried to her, "I thought you were still asleep."
Lily could not speak. Why was this vampire here? Why was he in chains? There should be no problem for him to tear the chains out the wall. Azrael interpreted correctly the quizzical expression on Lily's face and gave her an answer to her unspoken question.
"Lily, we are interrogating him and the shackles are covered with silver, which weakens him."
Lily was sure that an interrogation would not be the only thing to happen, and Jack seemed to have the same view, because he wanted to accompany her out of the room.
"Hey little one, you're not going to go already? Don´t you want to give me a little sample of your rare blood?" The vampire said with a mocking laugh and the next moment he was flying with such force against the stone wall that small cracks formed in the stones and small stone chips fell out. He fell unconscious to the ground, but seconds later he just shook his head and stood up again. Gabriel glared at him with angry eyes and his voice took on a frightening, threatening tone, when he spoke.
"You seem to be unaware of where you are and who you're dealing with. You should make your choice of words to us more carefully."
Lily felt a shiver down the spine. She had no fear of Gabriel, even if he spoke with this voice and he wasn´t even addressing her, but she knew that there were consequences if he said this and in this case it was certain that they would be fatal.
"We can do it the hard way or easy way", Gabriel continued, after a short break. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The vampire paused and grinned sardonically. Gabriel struck him again against the wall.
"You cannot do that forever, you will crack the wall," Diann said drily to Gabriel.
Azrael went to the table and Lily noticed that there were instruments and tools on it. If Lily could see things properly from the distance, there were knives and other similar items. Why hadn´t Lily already left the room? She could not and would not have to deal with this. First she had clear some things within herself. But no matter what this vampire had done or wanted to do and no matter what they wanted to know from him and what information he could give them, they had no right to torture him. Torture was barbaric and uncivilized. It violated human rights, in which Lily also included all the vampires automatically.
Lily pulled away from Jack and marched up to Azrael, who had just selected one of these instruments of torture and was on his way to the prisoner. She stood in the way of Azrael, who looked puzzled and said firmly to him. "He has rights and torture is wrong."
The vampire laughed mockingly and Azrael only asked: "What?"
Lily did not think. Only her sense of justice spoke out of her. "It violates human rights!"
"Hear! Hear!" The vampire said arrogantly, "she knows how to behave towards the VDM. But you must mean vampire rights, but for this little stupid error, I'll forgive you. You are after all only an human and a woman."
Lily angrily pulled air into her lungs. That bastard! She was here to defend his rights and he insulted her.
"VDM?", Gabriel asked curiously, "what does VDM mean?"
Again the chained vampire fell silent. Jack had reached Lily and gave her an admonishing look.
"If there are roman numerals, it will be the number 495. But I rather think that it is an abbreviation," Azrael spoke his thoughts out loud.
Jack's face reflected a thoughtful look. He muttered: "VDM." Lily asked if Jack had ever heard of this abbreviation. "Lily, come on," Jack said softly, she let him pull her along.
Minutes later they were in Jack's room. Jack seemed to wrestle with it and finally blurted out.
"I have my laptop here. I did not know where we would end up ...", Jack made a short pause, "on the laptop is an encyclopedia about the Order and everything that has to do with it. There are only brief explanations of the various things, but it will help us further..."
"Well, then let's look. Or is maybe the battery dead?"
"No, I had the battery charged just before we fled, and it has not been turned on since." Jack took a deep breath. "Lily, you have to stand in front of the door and make sure that nobody comes inside here. No one from this time period should see a computer." Lily nodded understandingly. She knew that Jack would tell her everything. She was sure. So she quickly went from Jack's room and stood in front of the door. Alternately, she looked right and left down the hallway.
Minutes passed and Gabriel and Azrael suddenly appeared in the hallway. Lily knocked on the door, but Jack did not come or say anything. Maybe it was too quiet. But before Lily could give any other warning, the two vampires stood in front of her.
Gabriel looked thoughtful and finally said, "Why are you standing here in front of Jack's bedroom door?"
"Why not?" Lily retorted loudly. She knew that vampires knew, if you lied. So what should she say?
"Why are you screaming?" Azrael asked.
Gabriel's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Where is Jack?" Lily just shrugged his shoulders.
"Let me pass, Lily," the old vampire said encouragingly. Lily put her hands against the door frame, blocking his way. "No!"
"Well, then I'll just move you out of the way." And with that he grabbed Lily and placed her carefully next to the entrance. Lily cried out in Jack's direction. "Gabriel and Azrael are coming in!"
Lily followed the two vampires and gave Jack an apologetic look. "I think the walls are simply too thick," she added.
Lily looked around. Everything seemed to be, as always. Only on the table, a cloak was thrown over an object. It could have been anything underneath, but Lily knew and recognized the shape, that there was the opened laptop.
"He just wants to talk to Lily," she heard Gabriel saying. "Jack, Azrael and I wanted to ask you, what do you think?"
"Why don´t you ask me directly, Gabriel?", Lily interrupted furiously into the conversation.
Gabriel turned to Lily. "Lily, I would have also asked you directly. But I wanted to know beforehand what Jack thought about it."
"I can decide for myself," she blurted out.
"No, no way will Lily go near him again," Jack answered the question, ignoring Lily. At first, Lily wanted to say something about it, but decided to wait, for she remembered suddenly that Jack had more information. He knew what or who were VDM.
Lily did not notice that Azrael watched her as she walked slowly to the little table, and Gabriel and Jack were talking. Lily sat on the chair and, fortunately, the cloak was just barely covering the laptop so that she could now see the screen. Jack was probably in a hurry and couldn´t hide it better or he did not know.
"Gabriel, VDM stands for Veri Mundi Domini," Jack said now. Of course, once again Latin, but that was normal for this time, Lily looked on the screen and saw in black letters the meaning: The real masters of the world.
"How do you know that, Jack?" Gabriel asked now.
Azrael stood directly in front of the little table, and Lily looked up at him. "Why have you sat down here," the wise vampire said and leaned on the table to be on the same level with Lily. He touched the cloth and the cloak slipped. Lily's reaction was too slow to grab the piece of material that slid down.
"Oops," Lily said apologetically in Jack's direction and Azrael eyed the back of the black laptop and then became interested and asked: "Is this thing such a thing as this little thing from which came the music?"
"Yes, it´s something like that," Lily said and then continued addressed to Jack: Jack, I'm sorry. I just wanted ... "
"... you wanted to know what it is," Jack completed her sentence. "You showed Azrael an MP3 player?"
"Yes. Azrael helped me clean up and then it got somehow into his hands. But I had not said what it was called. You've now done that," Lily said defensively.
"Just explain it, Jack," Gabriel said to him. "How do you know?"
Jack took a deep breath and thought hard. "There are books in which history or other things are recorded in detail and there are dictionaries in which there are only brief descriptions of terms."
Gabriel interrupted him impatiently. "Jack, I know what can be found in books."
"Gabriel, you wanted to have an explanation and I was not ready yet," Jack responded irritably. "In this case, the thing which is sitting in front of Lily, contains an encyclopedia about the Order and everything that has to do with it. So I know it. And please do not ask me how it works, because I cannot… I would have to tell you so many other things ..." Jack said, in a conciliatory tone.
Gabriel nodded understandingly. "And what else is there about VDM?"
"I do not know if I can tell you," Jack said evasively.
Pensive silence enveloped the room and Lily's eyes again fell on the screen. It was really not a long entry and only a short text was under the name of the group.
"Jack?" Lily spoke in fear, "there are our names."
"I know, Lily," came from Jack.
"Maybe this is now complicated. You two have come in the past and your names appear in an encyclopedia entry, although fate travelers should not be recorded in writing. Especially not with your name." Azrael paused shortly, "what if this is the reason why you're here. Maybe we should all know this entry, so that we can be more successful?"
Jack nodded understandingly and Gabriel agreed. "Jack, what's in this record?"
"I cannot memorize it ... I've just skimmed it briefly," Jack replied.
"I just read it," Lily said and decided to do it without permission, she began to read aloud. "Veri Mundi Domini (The true masters of the world). Vampiric organization that aimed to reign over the people and had a fondness for rare blood groups. Probably founded around 1200. Defeated 1209. Very few facts known.
Leaders of the organization: Deodatus, Denalo.
Persons who defeated the VDM:
O: Catharina Bonengel, Ferdinand Paladin
V: Sullivan, Fido, Thiann
E1: Diann, Svafa Vanadis, Albin Hamingja,
E2: Gabriel, Count of Everstein, Azrael, Lily Bonengel, Jack Paladin.
Lily looked up and stared at Gabriel and Azrael in disbelief. Nobody said anything. So, Lily decided to break the silence and she had questions also. "Okay, I'm in here with Bonengel, but it is now, more or less my name. Only, it really is a remarkable order of the names. So V might stand for Vampire... But what are the other abbreviations?"
Lily received no response. "And does that mean that we will be here at least a year, Jack? We are now in 1208 and 1209 is written here!" Still no answer. Lily was furious. At least they could say something.
Gabriel cleared his throat and said: "Could you repeat the entry of E2 again?" He could not be serious. Lily really had to suppress her anger, and try not to shout.
"Gabriel, you heard it right. I've also read it," Jack said.
Lily did not know once again what they meant, and apparently they did not even want to explain it. Or maybe the time had now come that she would learn everything about the Order?