When Misha woke up she felt elated, her lover was still fast asleep next to her after the amazing (But tiring) events of the night before. Misha smiled. Well, she was no longer a virgin and Aleera, Verona and Marishka couldn't say she was being too proper.
She dressed in a pale pink muslin dress with a high waist, elbow length sleeves with daises embroidered on them and a square neck.
She took a small bunch of hair back from just above each ear, braided them and tied them together.
She ran down stares to see her sisters and found them in the breakfast room if that was what it could be called; stone walls, a wooden floor, crude table and some chairs.
"Well, um, isn't this nice" said Misha.
"No, not really" said Marishka. "But at least it's quiet"
"How's Jenica?" asked Misha.
"She is better today" said Verona.
Misha nodded, relieved that they had not lost her.
The rest of the breakfast passed quietly and they soon went out to see the delights of Rome, they had been given a large allowance by the Count and were eager to see how good Romes shops were.
They went first to the main plazas and then to the fine tailors and the jewelers of the great city. When they had exhausted the shops, they went to a restaurant for lunch. After pizza and paster of many different kinds, they went back to the carriage and drove back to the Vatican.
As they got out a man came running over yelling that they were needed within and that he had been sent to find them.
"Has something happened to Jenica?" cried Verona, looking scared.
"No" he answered. "But Giordano Callath is back from his mission and the Pope wishes an audience with you ladies and Lord Van Helsing"
"We'll be there right away" assured Aleera.
They ran at full tilt into the Vatican and down to the meeting rooms, there they found Van Helsing, Carl, The Bishop, The Pope and a handsome man with shoulder length black hair, an aquiline face and flashing amber eyes waiting for them.
"You must be the wonderful ladies that saved my Jenica from death?" said Giordano, looking at them as if they were Goddesses. "How can I ever thank you?"
"There is no need to thank us" said Verona. "We are here to help and we did as much as we could. It is a pleasure to work for a higher purpose"
"Right" said the Pope. "Now we are all here we will discuss the spy game we will be playing at, I should say that our guests, and Lord Van Helsing are going to infiltrate the headquarters of The Skull and spy for us. They will find the information that only a spy in the top of the ring could get, in order to do this I have had fake criminal records put on them, what say you?"
"It is a good idea" said Giordano. "But I have heard that one of The Skull's closest allies has had a run in with Van Helsing?"
"Yes, that was so" said Van Helsing. "But I doubt he would recognize me in disguise"
"We should all be in disguise" said Verona. "He might recognize us too"
"That is a good idea" said The Pope smoothly. "But you would have to be careful of what you say and do; in his organization, he believes himself to be God and everyone else, lesser beings"
"So Giordano, can you introduce us?" asked Van Helsing
"The next meeting is in three days, I could take you with me if you want?" said Giordano
"Yeah, that'd be good" said Van Helsing. "Jennica might be well enough to come by then"
"Probably" said Verona. "She was awake this morning and eating a little. Also her colour has come back and the wounds are starting to heal"
"Good" said Van Helsing."Well then, it's a date"
The next three days passed in a whirlwind of parties, picnics and fun. Jenica was well on the mend and they would meet The Skull for the first time this evening.
An hour before they started putting on their disguises, nothing special but Verona's maid proved very good at applying makeup just right to make a person look completely different to who they were, mostly this worked by not putting on much at all, just enough to play tricks on the eye and fool the beholder.
They wore black and white uniforms as told by Giordano; a white shirt with a high collar tight cuffs for the men, loose for the women, black leather trousers, padded vest, leather corsets/ tunics over
the top and a thick black cloak on top of that. They wore masks that looked like human skulls.
They mounted and set off at a gallop towards Tor Vaiánica, as they rode, the land became steadily more foreboding, it turned from moorland to thick scrub and then to bare, sandy, rocky land where plants were few and far between.
Suddenly Verona cried: "It's that smell again, the smell we smelt when we were going to the Vatican!"
"Yes, it is definitely the one" said Aleera. "Only stronger and more pungent" she added.
Suddenly they set off down a rocky cliff path, now they could hear the sea roaring and smashing on the rocks below.
"Gods" said Aleera. "It sound as if it is very rough at sea"
"Yes, there was a great storm earlier, so seamen tell me" said Giordano.
"How much further?" asked Olivia.
"Not far" said Giordano. "Just down this path"
They rode on for another five, or so, minutes until suddenly it was there in front of them, a yawning, gaping black whole in the smooth surface of the cliff face. Over the entrance was a huge, fanged skull, carved into the very rock of the cliff, round the entrance were carved strange runes and Gothic patterns.
"They meet in there?" said Olivia slowly. "It looks like the gates of Hades"
"I know" said Giordano. "But it's what he likes"
As they entered, Misha noticed that several others had arrived and were following them into the cave. Into The Temple of Shadows.
As they passed through the gaping mouth of the tunnel, doors that they had not seen shut behind them and a long line of flaming braziers flared in front of them, running in a long line down the middle of the great tunnel that Misha guessed was the hall. Many smaller tunnels branched off to left and right and Misha began to think they were traveling downward because she could feel her horse sink into its back legs and elongate its front ones. Suddenly the tunnel plunged down and in front of them and Giordano signaled for them to dismount, then whistled, two men came and led their horses away and they walked toward the sharp drop; it was a huge set of stairs that were carved into the very rock, the great braziers changed to torches along the walls and they began their descent into the underworld.
As the descended, the terrible stench of fear, dread, death and hopelessness coming in sickening waves from the invisible bottom of the shaft. Just when they thought they were going to the very core of the earth, the stair flattened out and they looked onto a man made lake in the middle of a great circular chamber, at one end was a sort of depression into the wall and in this they could see a great throne, a figure dressed all in black sat in the throne. As they got closer, the saw that the thrones was made of a metal frame and them the actual chair was made of layer upon layer of human skulls, the arms of the chair were made metal and shaped in the likeness of skeletal hands.
Giordano indicated that they should kneel and and this they did, copying him and bowing so low that their foreheads touched the ground.
"Arise my Knights" said a ghostly, hissing voice from the throne. "I see some new people, what are they doing here, Giordano?"
"These are my friends from Rome, they are interested in joining you, my Lord" said Giordano.
"What are your names" said The Skull coldly.
"I'm Richard Loyd" said Van Helsing. "This is my finance, Misha Korona and her friends, Verona Arelion, Aleera Parithia, Marishka DiAngeya, Olivia Grey and Corinthia Merola, my Lord"
"Master, they wish to take the vow as soon as possible" said Jenica, speaking for the first time since they left the Vatican. "It is imperative since Richard is on the run for the murder of his wife and her secret lover and the girls are all hopelessly wrapped up in the murder of Lord DiAngeya, Marishka's father"
"Oh, at first glance I took you for a set of goody goodies" said The Skull. "I will definitely consider initiating you as soon as possible"
"Thank you, my Lord" aid Jenica. "You are ever gracious and understanding"
"Thank you, Miss Jenica, for the compliment, but now to business" said The Skull briskly. "I have information from a very reliably source within the Vatican that they are still as baffled as ever about our organization, so that puffed up old fool the Pope still thinks we don't have spies within the Holy Order, the idiot and to think I caught two of his spies among my Knights and put them to death" he laughed, high and cold. A laugh that sent shivers down their spines and made the hairs on their backs stand up. A laugh that held no humor and suggested that that The Skull relished pain and the suffering of others.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long but I am atemting to writ anothe fan fic at the same time so pleases be patient and I hope this nice, quite long, chapter will have been worth waiting for.
I would really like come construcive critisism at this time as I am trying to make this story more scary and exiting for you all.PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVEIWAND TELL ME HOW TO MAK IT BETTER, IT ONLY TAKES A SECOND.