The Feast Day of Saint Agnes

by Sshpadoinkel

England, 1880: A watcher and the slayer are forced to ask Angelus and his companions for their help to save the world. No spoilers.

1. Default Chapter

The Feast Day of Saint Agnes - part 1

The outskirts of Sheffield - December 1880

Two people are standing outside the Fairfield Inn. The man is in his 40s, short, pale skin, thinning red hair and glasses. He wears a tweed suit and carries a briefcase. The girl is in her late teens, tall, dark complexion and long black hair. Her nose is slightly crooked as if it has been broken once and she has a scar on her right cheek.
- Are we certain this is where they are staying, Mr. Keats?
- No doubt. Robson described Darla and the dress she was wearing when they left London. The owner remembered both.
- And the others are with her?
- We do not know for certain, but she rented two rooms, number two and number three, so probably, yes.
- Are you nervous Mr. Keats?
- Of course I am nervous. You can prepare for something like this your whole life, but when it finally does happen, you are suddenly painfully aware of your own shortcomings. And your mortality. Angelus is a legend, Samiyah. He is probably the most cunning, cruel and devious vampire in existence! Darla is only half a step behind him and Drusilla is mad enough to do anything! And now I must sit face to face with them and try to reason with them.
- I will protect you, Mr. Keats.
- I know, Samiyah. But if they decide to kill us, I doubt even you will be able to stop them. If we show up in great numbers, though, they will think we are out to kill them. We must hope I can make them understand that it is in their own best interest not to kill us. There! Angelus just walked by the window. No reason to wait longer.

They enter Fairfield Inn and walk to a door with the number 2 on. Keats knocks. Darla opens the door.
- Good evening, Ms. Darla. I am Mr. Keats from the Watchers Council. This is Ms. Samiyah, the Slayer. We would like to talk with you and Mr. Angelus about a matter of mutual interest.
- I am not aware of any matters of mutual interest, but please come in.
They enter the room. Angelus is standing by the window. He turns. They look at each other for a few seconds. Angelus gestures towards the table. Keats sits down, the others remain standing.
- Well, Mr. Angelus, before I get started, may I ask where Ms. Drusilla is?
- Dru is in the other room we rented, sleeping. She is tired from playing with her new pet.
- A bird? I hear she is quite fond of birds.
Angelus ponders him for a second.
- No, not a bird this time. A big, noisy and rather irritating pet. But enough of that, how did you find us here?
- Earlier this year there were a series of conspicuous killings in London which caught our attention. One of our people caught a glimpse of Ms. Darla leaving the city in a carriage going north, so we thought the killings might be connected with your group. A trail of similar deaths across the Yorkshire area confirmed that theory, so we have had people looking for you in all the major cities in the area and at last you were spotted here. These killings seem out of style for you and Ms. Darla and it forced you to leave London in a great hurry, so I assume it was the work of your less discrete "daughter", Ms. Drusilla?
- You may assume correctly. What is it you wish to discuss then?
- We have come here to ask for your help!
Brief silence.
- Angelus, darling, did he just say he wanted us to help them?
- I do believe he did.
- I am not asking you to do it out of the goodness of your hearts, but because it is in your own best interest as well. To explain it properly, I must tell you a rather long story.
- Maybe it is that time of the month for me, Mr. Watcher, but I am really not in the mood to listen to long stories.
Angelus sits down at the side of the table opposite Keats. He gestures for Darla to do the same.
- Ah, Darla, my love, I do not think these two fine people would have come here if it was not urgent. Let him tell his story. If we decide he has been wasting our time, we can always kill him afterwards. Tell your story, Mr. Keats, and for your own sake it better be a good one.
- Most kind. The story starts about 15 years ago in Rome with a woman named Magdalena. She was from a noble family, but unknown to almost all she was also a very powerful witch. Her mother had been a witch and her mother before her, and so on for many generations. None of them had ever married. The only use they seemed to have of men was to make them pregnant one time, so they had a daughter to continue their line. They had a male lover only one time, and afterwards they used their powers to erase his memory of the event. It was in their power to both ensure a healthy pregnancy in just one attempt as well as decide the gender of their child, because there is no history of any witches in the family having a son. And they only ever had one daughter, who always lived to have a daughter herself. Rather remarkable considering how often normal children die in infancy. Rumours were inevitable, of course, and that was how the Council first heard of them. Only rumours, though, so we had never bothered to investigate the matter.
A woman who has a child out of wedlock would often pay a high price. But in Rome as in many other places around the world, people of nobility can get away with things others can not. The most important reason for these women not to marry was an understandable wish to keep their witchcraft a secret, which would be difficult to hide from a husband, of course. Accordingly, it was to be expected that Magdalena would have a one time lover and bear a daughter. And she did. But apparently Magdalena had a rather odd sense of humour. She decided that the father of her child should be a catholic priest! It is no secret how the Catholic Church through history has looked at both witchcraft and children born out of wedlock, not to mention a priest breaking his wow of celibacy. Probably that was why the idea appealed to her. In any case, she used her witch powers to seduce a young priest, Father Giovanni, and she became pregnant as she wanted to.
- Are you sure she used witch powers, Mr. Keats? In my human days I often had priests come to visit me, and I did not need to use any witch powers to accomplish that! Darla says.
- I am sure you did not. That, however, was the case here. Magdalena now expected Father Giovanni to simply vanish from her life, but here she miscalculated. Father Giovanni was a man with a strong will. He remembered more than she expected. And being a priest of the old school he believed firmly in witchcraft, so when he started to look closer at the history of the women in Magdalena's family it was not hard for him to put two and two together.
Now he could have exposed Magdalena, but witchcraft or no, he did not want his sin to be publicly known, and he did not want his daughter to bear the stigma of being a witch's daughter. Instead he decided to save his daughter by stealing her! He knew that the only chance he would have was just after the birth, when Magdalena was weakened. He made secret arrangements to be transferred to a remote monastery, where the old priest was dying from sickness. He told his superiors that he had a newborn niece whose mother had died in childbed, and he was her only family. He was given permission to bring his "niece" along and she would be raised by the nuns in the monastery. It all succeeded. He managed to steal his daughter while Magdalena was still recovering, and he had covered his tracks so well that Magdalena could not find him in the far away monastery. It was the Monastery of Saint Agnes, and his daughter was given the name Agnes. It seemed appropriate to name her so. In Latin "Agnes" means...
- "Victim" or "Lamb". But I am not interested in Latin teaching, Mr. Keats. Your story better get more interesting soon or I might start to share Darla's opinion about the waste of this.
- I am getting there. But please indulge me a little longer. In Greek the name also means "Chaste" or "Pure". Father Giovanni obviously thought of his daughter as the near victim of an evil mother, but he had saved her so she could now live a pure life.
Here the history of Saint Agnes becomes important. Shall I tell it or do you already know it? I do not wish to cause you unnecessary grief, Ms. Darla.
- I know it vaguely. Do tell the story. If nothing else I might acquire a little new knowledge. It interests me how a woman can become a saint, I have certainly never been close myself.
- Sources differ, but this is the version which was preached in the Monastery of Saint Agnes. Agnes was from a family of nobility, who lived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Diocletian when it was a crime to be a Christian. Her beauty and wealth attracted many suitors, but she refused them all, saying she had chosen Someone else. That Someone was Jesus and she was put on trial. During the trial she steadfastly clung to her faith and refused to offer incense to the goddess Minerva, even though she was threatened with torture and rape. One man who tried to rape her was struck blind. Still, one of her rejected suitors managed to convince the judge to sentence her to death. It was believed that this ultimate threat would make her denounce her faith and accept marriage. But she went to her death joyfully, happy in the knowledge of soon being with Christ. She was executed by decapitation and fire. It was in the year 304 and she was only 13 years old when she died.
- Sweet little story. But honestly Mr. Keats, man to man …or demon to man … do you really believe in that story? Angelus asks.
- I am not quite sure and it is not very important. What is important is that the present day Agnes was brought up hearing that story and she believed in it. And why that is important Samiyah can tell you. She will now tell you what happened with Agnes, Giovanni and Magdalena when Agnes was 13 years old.

Samiyah remains standing and watches Angelus and Darla closely as she begins her tale.
- I was hunting a band of very ruthless vampires. They killed many people and in very stirring ways, so it was not difficult to follow their trail. But they never stayed in one city for long, so it was difficult to catch up with them. Eventually I caught up with them in Florence. I killed two of their numbers and the rest fled. So far they had preferred to move from one big city to another. The smart thing to do would have been to flee to another metropolis, stop their messy killings and they would have been lost in the city crowd. But they were not smart. Instead they chose to flee into open country and avoid all major cities. Probably they thought it would be more difficult for me to find them in remote country areas, but the smaller number of people in the area only made their killing trail easier to follow. A week after they fled Florence I had almost caught up with them again when fate brought them to the steps of the Monastery of Saint Agnes.
How they gained entrance to the monastery I do not know, and it does not matter much. When I got there the massacre had already started. They had decided to slaughter the whole monastery.
Angelus smiles.
- Ah, yes. The taste of nun's blood. There's nothing quite like. So pure and sweet at the same time. Of course you have to take your time to torture them first to bring out that extra flavour of terror, and I don't suppose these simpletons did. One time in France I ….
- Pardon the interruption Mr. Angelus, but you were the one who wanted this story concluded as fast as possible. Maybe you could save your story for another day?
- And here I thought you and Mr. Keats would be interested in hearing about how I create my masterpieces. The true artist is so unappreciated these days. Do continue.
- The simpletons as you called them had gathered all the people of the monastery in two groups. One group in the kitchen and one group in the sanctuary. In the kitchen three of the vampires were busy drinking and killing, but Father Giovanni and a few nuns were still alive when I got there. The one standing guard did not even see me coming, and the two others were so engrossed in their drinking that I had killed number two also before the last one noticed anything. Not that it made much of a difference. It only took a few seconds to dispatch of him as well.
Father Giovanni immediately ran out of the kitchen, screaming about another group of demons, that his daughter was with them and we had to stop them. I shouted for him to stop and let me handle it, but he did not listen and he was too far ahead for me to stop him. When I reached the sanctuary a few seconds behind Father Giovanni I saw a horrifying sight. A great number of nuns lay dead all over the room. The only ones still moving were father Giovanni, Agnes and two vampires. I remember being vaguely surprised that apparently only two vampires could cause such a massive carnage, but more immediate problems called for my attention. Father Giovanni was fighting a losing battle against a male vampire on the floor, but what really caught my attention was what a blond, female vampire was doing to Agnes. She held Agnes' mouth to a cut on her chest. She was not just killing Agnes. She was making her a vampire!
It was not until later I found out what had really happened. One of the seemingly dead nuns on the floor was only half dead and she survived. My initial feeling that just two vampires could not have caused such a carnage was correct. There had actually been four vampires in the sanctuary, but Agnes had killed two of them!

Keats makes a discrete cough.
- Now, if I may add a few details. As you might be aware there are two different kind of witches, generally speaking; those who are born without powers but learn witchcraft, and those who are born with witchpowers. Witches from the first group can become quite powerful witches even though they have no inborn powers. Witches from the second group sometimes manifest powers without any kind of tutoring while others never discover their innate powers. But the most powerful witches are always descendants of other witches. Like Agnes. If things had run their normal course, Magdalena would have secretly started to teach Agnes at an appropriate age like her own mother had done and her mother before her. As it were, Agnes knew nothing about her powers. But with witches and other humans with innate powers there seems to be a connection between the growth of their bodies and the growth of their powers. A witch rarely ever shows signs of her powers before she reaches puberty. Maybe scientists can explain it some day. It seems as though the changes in the body of the youth somehow brings the so far dormant powers to the surface. But if there is not a teacher at hand, sometimes the witch can go her whole life without being aware of her potential powers. In other cases her powers are activated by chance. These cases all seem to be connected to traumatic circumstances. In one case a father's molestation of his daughter activated her telepathic powers. In another case a young man saved his little brother from drowning by a sudden use of telekinesis. For Agnes it was the shock of experiencing a vampire carnage. Her powers first manifested as the ability to set things on fire. Pyrokinesis we call it. Samiyah can explain exactly what happened.
Samiyah clears her throat before continuing.
- This is what the surviving nurse later told me. One of the vampires was drinking her blood, so she was not fully conscious, but she saw one of the other vampires attack Agnes. Agnes held up her hands as if she would try to push the vampire away. When he was only a few steps from Agnes he suddenly burst into flames. In a matter of seconds only a few ashes were left. The nurse clearly remembered the look of complete surprise on Agnes' face. The vampire, who had been busy drinking her blood, suddenly stopped. Obviously he was surprised as well. He threw her to the ground and attacked Agnes instead, but before he could reach her, he too burst into flames. The last thing the nurse remembers before losing consciousness was the female vampire grabbing Agnes from behind. Father Giovanni and I came onto the scene probably just a few minutes later. It is not hard to guess what had happened in the meantime. The female vampire had overpowered Agnes, but instead of just killing the girl she had decided it would be interesting to sire a vampire with the combined powers of a witch and a vampire!
My first priority was to save Father Giovanni. I easily staked the vampire pinning him down and turned towards the female vampire. She was not the least bit scared of fighting a slayer. She just tossed Agnes aside and attacked me. She was a good fighter. I got a couple of bruised and it took me about a minute to defeat her. All the vampires were dead, but now I made my big mistake. Father Giovanni was holding his dead daughter, crying. I knew the girl had been turned and would rise as a vampire. I should have decapitated the girl immediately, but I could not bring myself to tell the grieving father that his daughter's body had been possessed by a demon and cut her head off before his eyes. I decided to let the poor man give his daughter a proper burial and then kill her when she rose from the grave. It meant I would have to stay at the monastery a few more days, but the few survivors clearly needed my help, and knowing nothing about Agnes' witch powers I did not think it would be a problem to kill a fledgling vampire. So I began examining all the bodies, looking for survivors or signs that anyone else had been fed vampire blood. In the kitchen there were about a dozen survivors, in the sanctuary only the one wounded nun. Agnes was the only one who had been turned.
Keats pats Samiyah's hand.
- You have nothing to blame yourself for, my dear. Without a doubt you could have killed a newly risen vampire despite her special powers, if not for Magdalena's intervention.
Darla looks up, an interested look on her face for the first time.
- Magdalena? The mother? How did she suddenly become involved in this?
- To explain how she crossed Samiyah's plans, I need to explain a few more things which we would learn later about this particular witch family, when we came into possession of a grand book called "Libro delle Ombre", a kind of family bible in which they had written down their entire history, going back hundreds of years. Amongst their many powers is the ability to "feel" each other. They can not exactly read each others minds, but whenever the one uses her powers, the other one can feel it in her mind. And when Agnes used her powers for the first time to kill those two vampires, Magdalena knew right away where to find her daughter even though they were hundreds of miles apart. Magdalena had never stopped searching for her daughter, you understand. She had searched far and wide and spent a fortune trying to recover her daughter, but Father Giovanni had covered his tracks too well. Magdalena was not motivated simply by motherly love, though. Agnes was the only witch daughter she would ever have! The pregnancy of the witch mother is part of a powerful spell. The spell ensures that she needs to be with a man only one time to become pregnant with a girl. A girl who will become at least as powerful as her mother. But the spell is so taxing it can be done only one time. If repeated, the mother will die. And if she has a child the normal way, there is no guarantee the child will be a girl or even have any powers. In Libro delle Ombre the creed was clear: "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice." A mother and a daughter. So Magdalena had strong reasons to find her daughter and not accept her death. The very family line depended on Agnes surviving! Go on, Samiyah.
Samiyah watches Angelus and Darla closely. She has a strong feeling that the story has caught their attention. There does not seem to be any risk of an attack right now. She continues the story.
- At the monastery we had been very busy taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. I had send a letter to the nearest Council office, but it would take time before their help would arrive at this remote place. Agnes had also been buried. I knew she would rise as a vampire the following night. I would be waiting and slay her. Her father would never need to know that his daughter's body had been possessed by a demon. But unknown to any of us Magdalena had arrived late in the afternoon, travelling with the speed of a powerful witch. She could not feel the presence of her daughter anymore, but instead she found her hated former lover, Giovanni praying in his room. He was shocked to see her, of course, and before he could make a call for help the furious Magdalena was at his throat. With her powers she quickly forced him to tell everything about the vampire attack and Agnes dying. Magdalena refused to believe her daughter was dead. She dealt him a crushing blow and rushed to Agnes' grave. She quickly dug up her daughter's coffin and carried it to a small nearby forest so she could not be seen from the monastery. Magdalena was seized by a kind of madness by now. As a witch she knew about vampires and she knew what fate had befallen her daughter. But having finally found her daughter after all these years she refused to accept that she had been a little too late. She could sense something alive within Agnes' body. It was the demon stirring to life, of course. The real Agnes was dead and Magdalena knew that deep down. But she convinced herself that she could save her daughter. She would use a powerful purification spell to rid her daughter's body of the demonic presence, Agnes would be herself again and they could be together. Madness, but Magdalena was beyond normal, sound reason. The purification spell woke Agnes. Magdalena spoke to her, that she was her mother, how much she loved her and how she had never stopped searching for her. That she would not accept her death and that she had purified her so they could be together. Agnes' only answer was to sink her fangs into her throat! She drained Magdalena nearly dry, but the purification spell did have some effect. A part of Agnes was repulsed by what she was doing, so she let go of Magdalena and fled.
By now the sun had set and I had come to the grave. I was shocked to find the grave disturbed, but the trail to the forest was easy to follow. I found Magdalena, she was very weak but still alive. I did not know then who she was, but when I brought her into the monastery Father Giovanni, who had now regained consciousness, told me . It was not hard to guess, that she was the one who had dug up Agnes. I told her she had done a very stupid thing, that I was the Slayer and now would kill the demon inhabiting her daughter's body. The weakened Magdalena objected. She told us how she had purified her daughter, that she was not a real vampire. Yes, Agnes had drunk some of her blood, but she was not really evil, she was certain of that. Now that Agnes was a vampire, Magdalena could no longer "feel" her, but while she was drinking her blood there had been a kind of merger of their minds. She had felt the turmoil in Agnes' mind and how she had been repulsed by her own blood drinking. We did not have to kill her. There was still hope for her. She could reach her daughter and reason with her. And so she continued rambling.
I did not listen to her. I went off hunting for Agnes, but I soon realised I would never be able to catch up with her. She moved much faster than a fledgling vampire should be able to. I did not know then, what I found out later. Agnes had not only sucked most of the blood out of Magdalena, she had also drained her almost completely of her witch powers, adding her powers to her own. Therefore she could move at such high speed. She had the combined power of a vampire and two strong witches! She got away.

Samiyah is silent for a few seconds, a look of selfreproach on her face.
- When I came back to the monastery Magdalena was dead. I knew I would need the resources of the Council to find Agnes, so I waited at the monastery until they arrived. When they did, the wounded nun from the sanctuary had woken up in the meantime and told me how Agnes had burned two vampires. I was starting to understand just how powerful this vampire-witch might be. But Mr. Keats can tell the next part better.
- When the Council heard from Samiyah what had happened, we did everything we could to learn as much about Agnes as we possibly could. We talked with her father. We found the family witch bible, Libro delle Ombre and studied it. But most of all we learned by following her trails and questioning those who had met her. Soon we knew the workings of her mind and we knew she was quite mad. I suppose one should not be surprised she has been driven mad, considering the circumstances. I am sure you are well aware how much the personality of the vampire is influenced by the personality of the human. All vampires are evil by nature, but if the human was already evil, the vampire tends to become even more evil than other vampires. You, Mr. Angelus are the perfect example of this. By all accounts Liam, the man whose body you inhabit, was a completely selfish and uncaring man, and accordingly you are largely acknowledged as the most evil vampire in existence. No disrespect to you, Ms. Darla.
- None taken, Mr. Keats. Angelus' ingenuity is hard to keep up with. But you seem to have gone a bit off track. Stop wasting our time with things we already know, or I will be sorely tempted to demonstrate my own ingenuity on you.
- I apologize, but my small transgression did have a point. As a human Agnes had been a completely innocent girl. She had lived her whole life in the monastery, fully isolated from the evils of the outside world and much loved by her father and all the nuns. She was as pure as her name, one could say. Now her body was overtaken by an evil demon, but with the memories of the good girl. Furthermore, Magdalena had tried to cleanse the evil from her daughter's body with a powerful spell of purification. It had not worked, of course. You can not change the base nature of a creature without a soul. But the spell had not been without effect. It had created in Agnes' mind a strong wish to do good alongside her evil vampire nature. You could say her mind now had two different personalities; a Good Agnes and a Bad Agnes.
Like Magdalena before her Agnes refused to accept reality, that she was no longer a living human being but now a demon. And here her belief in the story of Saint Agnes comes in. Like the original Agnes she was born in Rome. She had been raised in the Monastery of Saint Agnes and bore her name. She was now 13 years old, like the saint when she died. The saint had been put to death by fire and decapitation, and being a vampire fire and decapitation was almost the only things that could kill her. All this led the mad girl to believe that she was Saint Agnes reborn!

- Really? How does she explain that she can not touch a Cross without being burned? Angelus smirks.
- Well, mad people do not seem to have problems to rationalise what is happening in their life so it fits with their mad views. One of our people was present at one of her sermons and quoted her thus; "Our Lord, Jesus Christ suffered greatly on the Cross for our sake, and through his pain he took upon himself the sins of all mankind and cleansed us. By the great mercy of Our Lord I have been similarly blessed to suffer by the cross while I do His holy work and cleanse mankind of all sinners."
- Did you say "sermons" and "holy work", Mr. Keats? Darla asks.
- I did indeed. Agnes is convinced she has a holy calling, you see. She believes her powers to be a gift from God, given to her in order to do His work; to cleanse the world of all sinners! How she goes about her work depends on which part of her personality is dominant at the time. Good Agnes preaches the Holy Word and tries to make people believe by demonstrating her God given powers. One of our men pretended to be one of her believers and he reported that many people really do believe she is Saint Agnes and they try to be better and kinder people. But if Good Agnes becomes angry Bad Agnes becomes the dominant personality for a while, and her way of eliminating sin is far more brutal. She simply eliminates the sinners! Like Magdalena Agnes can travel far and wide in little time. July last year she travelled all the way to Irkutsk in Russia. Apparently she did not like what she saw there, so she followed in the footsteps of God at Sodom and Gomorrah. She burned the city to the ground with her pyrokinesis! A major city simply destroyed and an unknown number of people killed.
Darla laughs delighted.
- I am starting to like this girl! And this was the doing of Bad Agnes?
- We believe so. You look like you are about to ask a question Mr. Angelus. I imagine you are going to ask how Agnes can kill great numbers of people and still consider herself a saint? From what our man told us and what we have been able to piece together from other sources, Good Agnes simply has no memories of the actions of Bad Agnes! Good Agnes only remembers the good things she is doing herself, therefore she can still consider herself a saint. We do not think Bad Agnes has any delusions of sainthood. She is a zealot. She kills anyone she considers a sinner.
Angelus scratches his cheek, a thoughtful look on his face.
- That was one of my questions, yes. But I was wondering about something else, too. Like any other vampire she must have a constant craving for blood. How does she explain that, Mr. Keats?
- In quite a beautiful way, actually. As a devout catholic Agnes has always fully believed in transubstantiation; that when the priest blesses the bread and the wine at the communion service it becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. If wine can become the blood of Christ why not real blood as well!? When Good Agnes is thirsty for blood she asks some of her believers to cut their wrists and donate some blood in a large cup. A priest blesses it and she now drinks the blood of Christ. It does not seem to frighten her believers in any way. To them it only confirms her divinity.
Angelus makes a small admiring nod
- Very clever. I will not ask how she explains that exposure to the sun will kill her or her lack of a reflection. I am sure she has those covered as well. But you still have not explained why you have come to us with this problem.

Keats makes a face. He is obviously not happy to say what comes next.
- To be hones; we need your help because we have been unable to deal with Agnes ourselves. I would be lying if I did not admit that I despise you and Ms. Darla and Ms. Drusilla with all my heart for your cruelties, so you can probably guess this is our last resort. After she burned down Irkutsk we committed great resources to have her killed immediately, but she is too powerful for us. During this year and last year Agnes has drained and killed several strong witches like she did with Magdalena. Each time she has become more powerful and one of her powers is the power to read minds. She can feel it in her mind whenever somebody near her wants to kill her. It is hard enough to find her because she moves from city to city so fast and often, but whenever our people did find her she killed them long before they came close enough to kill her. She has also killed our man who pretended to be one of her followers. We have lost many men, and none of our people dare try anymore.
- Not even the powerful slayer? Angelus asks with a mocking smile.
- I am not afraid to face her. Samiyah says in a calm voice, not taking the bait. But I am just one person. I can only be in one place at the time. When Agnes showed up in a new city I travelled there as fast as humanly possible, but she had always moved on before I got there. Only those who happened to be in the city when she arrived got a chance to kill her, and so far I have not been to anticipate her movements. And now the Council has decided that even though I might have a chance to kill her next month they dare not risk it.
- It is true, Keats says. Just last month the whole situation changed from bad to desperate. On the ninth of November Agnes was in Zagreb. Some people there made her angry, and her anger started an earthquake! We do not think she even did it intentionally, but her powers have become so great that if she becomes much more powerful she can well destroy the world. And that is exactly what Bad Agnes intends to do. It will fulfil the desires of both her evil vampire self and the religious zealot in her who wishes to rid the world of all sin. By eliminating all sinners! She intends to kill all human beings on this earth except for her chosen few. She can burn great cities to ashes, cause earthquakes and God only knows what other deadly powers she has in her arsenal. And she can move from country to country at great speed. She can kill millions of people in very little time when she decides Judgment Day is at hand!
Keats pauses for a few seconds before continuing.
- As Samiyah mentioned, we think we will have a chance to kill Agnes next month. Most likely the last chance we will ever get. Our plan was for Samiyah to do it, but the chance of Agnes sensing her intentions and killing her is too great to risk. Not too great a risk to Samiyah, but too great a risk to the world. Therefore we have swallowed our pride and come to you, because you actually have a chance to accomplish what we can not, Mr. Angelus.
- Because she will not be able to read my mind?
- Correct. Samiyah is powerful but she is still human and her thoughts can be read. But we know that vampire thoughts cast no reflection. You can come close to Agnes without her being aware of any danger.
- And why exactly is it that you expect me to do that for you? Out of the evil of my heart?
- Because this is your world as well. Agnes might spare a few humans she considers pure enough, but she will most certainly do everything in her powers to eradicate all vampires. We know that you are very confident in your own powers and probably believe you can survive anything the vampire-witch can throw at you. But we once heard a rumour amongst vampires that you stood up to the Master and ridiculed him for his plans to lay waste to the world. We think you like the world as it is and would like to preserve it.
Angelus smiles.
- You are not wrong, Mr. Keats. That was a nice touch, mentioning one of my finest hours. Buttering me up. And you carefully mentioned how much it galls you to ask for my help. Ah, the extra incentive that you, the Watcher's Council and the Slayer, my enemies, come and beg for my help. And how I would enjoy accomplishing a task you could not and mock you for eternity. You have carefully presented this to make it as appealing to my sadistic, self satisfied mind as possible, do not think I have not noticed.
- Well, in a desperate situation a man must use all means at his disposal. And whatever you may think of my way of presenting things, all I have said is true.
- Maybe. Before I say yes or no tell me a little more of your plans. Why do you think there will be a chance to kill her next month?
- Because January 21 is the Feast Day of Saint Agnes where all good Catholics celebrate her martyrdom. One of the last things our man reported before Agnes killed him was that last year Agnes visited the Church of Sant' Agnese fuori le mura, "Saint Agnes Outside the Walls", at the Via Nomentana outside the old walls of Rome where the bones of Saint Agnes rest. She stayed there for a full week until January 28, which is the Second Feast Day of Saint Agnes and is believed to be the actual day of her birth. We know Agnes will visit there again this year. We want you to be there as well and kill her!
Keats was starting to get a little agitated. He takes a couple of deep breaths before continuing.
- While she is in Rome, it is her intention to reveal her "true" identity to the papacy. That is another reason why she must be killed this time. The Pope and the people around him will shrink from her in horror, naturally, and that will make her very angry because they are the people in the world she most want to believe her. At the very least she is going to destroy Rome. Even more likely she will interpret the fact that even God's own representative on earth, the Pope, does not believe in her holy work as the ultimate proof of the complete wickedness of mankind and the final sign from God that Judgment Day is at hand.
Angelus ponders his words.
- Rome destroyed. That would be a shame, would it not, Darla?
- Oh, yes. We have so many nice memories of Rome. Remember all that fun we had with Holtz there? That was the last time we saw him before he disappeared. Such a shame. It would also be a shame if all that wonderful art in the Sistine Chapel and other places in Rome were to be destroyed. We could never come back for another roman holiday. Angelus, darling, I really think we should help them.
- Maybe. I have a few more questions that need to be answered first, though. First among them, Mr. Keats, is the matter of trust. As you have made plain you do not trust us and you only come here as a last resort. And we do not trust you either, as I am sure you are aware. We need an arrangement which will prevent all treachery on both sides and I am sure you have already thought of that. What do you have in mind, an exchange of hostages?
For the first time during their visit Keats smiles vaguely.
- You are right, Mr. Angelus, I have considered the problem. An exchange of hostages is not what I had in mind, though. If you will excuse me for a second.
Keats walks to the window. He makes a signal with his hand to someone outside and then walks to the door. Samiyah stays at the table, still watching the two vampires. Thirty seconds later there is a knock on the door. Keats opens the door and a woman enters. They walk to the table and Keats looks at the two vampires.
- Allow me to introduce Ms. Lillith Mendax. Ms. Mendax is an attorney. She is in charge of the London office of the international law firm, Wolfram & Hart.

To be concluded next week