A/N Thanks very much for your reviews! I very much appreciate them. This chapter involves more setting up of the plot and background – but don't worry, things get more interesting in chapter three. Hope you enjoy this chapter :-)

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Van Helsing reached the Vatican at midday, tired and dusty, and with a sense of foreboding he could not shake – a feeling that had followed him from India, although he had only begun to notice it when the adrenaline and euphoria resulting from his mission had faded.

Ignoring the standing rule that he should report immediately to Cardinal Jinette upon arrival at Vatican City, the hunter made his way directly to Carl's laboratory. He was not there, which surprised Van Helsing; Carl usually skipped noon prayers and the following meal in order to have peace and quiet to work for a couple of hours. He was not in the refectory either, or in his cell, and when the throng of monks came out from the chapel, Carl was not among them.

His sense of unease increasing, Van Helsing made his way to Jinette's office. Maybe the cardinal would have some idea of where Carl was. Van Helsing had noticed that the friar's cell seemed even more Spartan than usual – some books and odds-and-ends were missing – and he wondered whether Carl had been sent somewhere on a constitutional.

Rapping loudly on the door, Van Helsing waited impatiently for about five seconds before Jinette invited him inside. The cardinal put the paperwork he was looking over aside immediately upon recognising his visitor.

"Van Helsing. Welcome back." With a sweep of his be-ringed hand, the old man invited the hunter to sit. Van Helsing dropped into a chair, but sat tensely, his spine rigid and every muscle alert.

"Your report..."

"You Eminence, there's something..."

"...can wait," Jinette finished, tersely. "A matter of importance has arisen here in the Vatican – one which, I am afraid, will affect you personally."

Van Helsing's heart sank as all his presentiments of dread were realised.

"Carl," he said grimly. Jinette nodded.

"Where is he?" the hunter demanded.

"That, I fear, is the difficulty. We do not know."

"What!?" after everything that had happened, the last thing Van Helsing would have expected Carl to do was run. He had seemed so vulnerable, so needy of support and routine and familiarity.

"Tell me everything you can, Your Eminence. Please," Van Helsing added the word as an afterthought. Jinette did not appear to notice.

"There was a small accident in the laboratory thirteen days ago, in the morning. Carl was there but not injured, though he seemed distressed by the event, according to Lay-Brother Antonio, who cleared up the mess. Carl was inclined to blame himself, even though it appears that the accident could not – for once – have been his fault.

"Brother Ambrose saw him walking in the garden that evening, at about nine o'clock, appearing very distracted, pacing aimlessly and wringing his hands, talking to himself. That was the last time Carl was seen at the Vatican. His cell was empty the next morning; he was not at matins, meals, or in the laboratory at all. We have heard nothing of him since."

Van Helsing, his shoulders tense and his jaw set, pondered the problem.

"He told no one what he intended? No indication at all?"

"Nothing that we have been able to learn."

The hunter clenched his fists, frustrated and alarmed. How could Carl have been so stupid as to leave the safety of the Vatican – to leave Van Helsing, whom he should have known would help and protect him, whatever was happening?

"Tallander," the hunter growled. Jinette looked at him sharply.

"Did Carl...?"

"No. But it has to be...something to do with Tallander; something to do with the 'gift' he claimed to have given Carl. I'd stake my life on it."

Jinette raised an eyebrow.

"You may have to, my son. Carl must have left for one of two reasons: either Tallander's 'gift' was something so painful, or shaming, that Carl could not bear the society of even his closest friends; or, Carl is, or at least believes himself to be, a danger to those around him."

"No!"

"Why would he not communicate his suffering to you, his closest friend? Why would he hide, if not to spare those he loves? Carl is a brave man, Van Helsing, and he trusts you implicitly. He would consult with you, seek comfort and advice...unless he feared to be in your present because he believes sincerely that he may be a danger to you."

Van Helsing gritted his teeth. He could not argue with Jinette's analysis of the situation; it was the best theory they had. Still, his blood boiled when he thought of Carl suffering alone through some dreadful, unknown torment. Had he not suffered enough?

"What do you want me to do?" Van Helsing asked, knowing the answer.

"Find him," the cardinal replied, succinctly. "Find him, and bring him home, Gabriel. We will help him if we can."

"And if not?" it made Van Helsing's soul ache to ask the question, but he had to - for Carl's sake. "If Tallander's gift really has made him – dangerous?"

There was a silence, uncomfortable on the one side, accusing on the other.

"We always try," the cardinal said wearily, "to rehabilitate those – persons of unfortunate reputation – who are brought to us alive. Carl will be assured of the same moral treatment."

"You mean you won't kill him if you can use him."

"Or reverse whatever Tallander has done to him. My son, if Carl himself cannot bear to be near those he loves, if he has already condemned himself into madness or evil, it would be against the will of God to keep him alive with his soul in torment."

This rhetoric was sounding too familiar, sounding too much like Tallander's enemy Reicher, when he had tried to persuade Van Helsing that killing Carl – and Tallander with him – would be a merciful release to the friar.

"I won't hurt him," the hunter said, forcing his voice to sound steady. "I'll search for him – but I won't harm Carl, or allow him to come to harm."

"I would expect no less of you, as his friend," Jinette replied, evenly. An understanding passed between the two, unspoken, but it gave Van Helsing some small comfort. The hunter rose briskly to his feet.

"I'll go at once, then, Your Eminence."

"May God go with you, my son." Swiftly and sincerely the cardinal blessed him, and Van Helsing took his leave, riding out once more – this time, not to slay a monster, but to save a soul. A soul that, despite everything, he believed to be innocent.

A soul he loved.

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A/N Please review! Next chapter – Carl!