Author's note: English is not my native language. Also, I'm not a writer, I'm an engineer. So, there will be blood^Wmistakes and typos and probably plot and pot holes too. (Which reminds me; I should check if the cuttings have been rooted yet.)
About Helena...
Even though Helena was a child when she was turned into a vampire and her personality had not yet been fully developed, she still was old enough for her parent(s) (and the society in which she grew up) to plant some (moral) values into her. So, Helena's moral values are—sort of—Christian values. Since I don't know what kind of values the (Catholic) Church promoted back in the 15th century, I'm creating my own versions of those to fit my idea of who Helena is and who she will become.
And, since Helen is Adam/Xander's mentor, she is implementing some of her values to him.
Also, since Helena was abused as a child—as was mentioned earlier in the story when she was turned—by her father, it is understandable that, even though Helena thinks that she is above humans, she still detests unnecessary cruelty. Especially she loathes child abusers.
Oh, the Death mentioned in this chapter is Methos/Adam Pierson from the Highlander TV-series. Later in the story, Adam/Xander will befriend with Methos and a few other Immortals.
Chapter Five
Bologna, Kingdom of Italy, 1509
Adam felt like he'd been waiting beside Helena's deathbed. She was slipping away, she had never been afraid of killing for her food. But destroying a town was another thing. Helena was terrified of herself. She was Adam's only companion, his daughter by the blood. Adam hated to watch her dwelling in her self-hatred.
One night in Bologna, when Adam was hunting, he suddenly felt a mind that was in awe of some gargoyle. The beautiful young woman could not have found a worse place to look for the art. She was surrounded by predators. Placing his hand on the first man's mouth, Adam silently drained him. Then he killed two other men stalking the young woman before he went to her.
Adam looked at the gargoyle, the young woman had a good taste. The gargoyle she was interested in was beautifully carved and, though it looked like a demon ready to jump on you, it still looked like it could be gentle when it kills you. "Have you heard the legend of Gargouille?" Adam asked.
The young woman didn't even flinch, but she was squeezing a knife on her hand. "No, I have not," she said.
"The Gargouille was a long and ruthless sea serpent which emerged from the Parisian river the Seine and began to spew water. It created a great tidal wave, and whatever the flood did not kill, the dragon ate," Adam said, "the humans condemned the dragon to die by fire since it killed with water. Since then the rainwater from the roof of churches has come out from monstrous sculptors called gargoyles."
The young woman looked at the gargoyle. "That's why its mouth is open."
Adam nodded. "When it rains, the water from the roof is directed to the drains, and it comes out from its mouth," he sighed, "this is not a good place to be out at night."
"Nights are only time I can escape from home to see the sculpture," the young woman said.
Adam read her mind, she wanted to be an artist, but she also knew that art was a male-dominated field. She feared she'd never had any change to do what she wanted. "Do you want to touch it?" he asked, "I can take you up there."
The young woman was in two minds; on the one, hand she feared Adam, he was one of the men who might want to harm her. On the other hand, she wanted to see the gargoyle. Finally, her need to see how the gargoyle had been sculptured won, and she nodded. Adam wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "Don't fear, I won't drop you."
When Adam floated upward, she was terrified, but when they got to the gargoyle, she forgot everything. All she saw was the gargoyle. She stroked it and then she started to examine it, trying to find out how it had been made. Adam smiled as he sensed the young woman's joy as she lost herself to her own world where she'd be carving stone figures like the one in front of her.
She took her sweet time to examine it, but Adam didn't mind, he was enthralled by the way her mind worked; she didn't think as much with the words but with the pictures. Her mind was busy ideas and images.
Amazingly, the young woman figured how the gargoyle had been forged, and in her mind, she already was copying it on the apricot stone. Adam smiled when he realized that the young woman was an artist. He'd have to introduce her to Helena. She would want to help the young woman to achieve her dream and, hopefully in the process, Helena would forget her enormous guilt about destroying a town full of people.
"Thank you," she said when we landed back on the street. "I'm Properzia."
"I'm Adam. There is someone I want you to meet. I'll escort you to your home and tomorrow I will bring someone to meet you and your parents."
Adam and Properzia walked through Bologna, and the young woman didn't say anything, but in her mind, there were pictures, sculptures, and a constant feed of images. At her home, Adam again took hold of her waist and floated her to her window so that she didn't have to climb up there.
"What are you?" She asked.
"Something outside of nature," Adam smiled when he heard her thoughts; she was intrigued by the idea of him being something that wasn't natural. She wasn't afraid of him; she was just curious. "I promise you that I will never hurt you, and neither will my sister. She is known to spend a lot of money the help women artists."
"Why?"
"Her mother was a talented and intelligent woman, she carved miniature statues from the wood, but when she married her husband ordered her to stop, because art wasn't suitable for a woman," Adam lied. "Helena saw how miserable her mother was when she wasn't allowed to do her art, and Helena doesn't want any woman to go through that. And now that she can help she is helping women."
"Her mother? Wouldn't that be your mother too? Didn't you say she's your sister?"
"Yes, but she's not my sister by blood," Adam said, placing his hand over his unbeating heart, "but by the heart. Sometimes family is more about heart and mind than blood. I love her like a sister, so, in all of the ways that matter she is my sister."
Properzia smiled. "I understand."
"I know you do... now, go to sleep, tomorrow I will come to meet your father and ask if we can pay for your training... you want to be a sculptor, and I hope we can help you with that," Adam sighed, "I cannot promise that your father will allow us to do that, but we will try."
Her eyes flickered with mirth, then she lowered her head. "What if the father says no?"
"Properzia, as you know, this is the men's world. There will always be men trying to stop you doing what you want. You cannot fight the whole world, but you can always find a way to bend the rules, just like you've done with your apricot stone sculptures. They don't let you sculpt marble, so you make art out of apricot stones.
"And you can use wood or bronze or anything you can use. But, whatever you do, never stop making art. I may not look it, but I'm a very old man, and I've learned that science, art, and literature are things that elevate humans above animals. The world will always need more art. Never stop making art."
Properzia smiled. "I won't."
"Good girl," Adam said, "now, go to bed, we will see tomorrow."
When Adam left, he kept listening Properzia's thoughts, her mind and imagination was first one he'd met that used all of her senses when she imagined things. She imagined even the smells. When Adam got back to our Hotel room, Helena was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Adam connected into her mind, and without a word showed her the meeting with Properzia. Then he showed Helena the things Properzia imagined.
Helena sat up and stared at Adam. "Is she real?"
"Yeah, if anyone Properzia is a born artist and she needs your help."
Helena swung her legs on the floor and stood up. "I need to feed," she said, "and I know what you are trying to do, why you want me to work with her."
"Of course you do," Adam said, raising his eyebrow, "is it working?"
"Maybe... I don't know... all of the innocent lives I took, that will always be my burden till I die... but helping her... it will be a start."
"And you aren't thinking about killing yourself anymore, that is a one battle I've already won," Adam said, "let's get into the harbor, there's a gang of humans who sell other humans to a revenant clan for them to eat."
Fourteen hours later, Adam and Helena were in Properzia home talking with her father. Helena had been ready to mess with his mind to make him accept that his daughter had a precious gift that needed to be honed.
But the man surprised them; he already knew about his daughter's talent and was willing to let her have tutors. Properzia's father was an extraordinary man; he wanted to protect his daughter, but at the same time, he wanted her to be happy.
"I will stay here for a while," Helena said when she and Adam had gotten out from Properzia's home. "But it might be a good idea if you'd leave. Giovanni fears that you want to rape his daughter."
"I would never do that, I might kill her, but I'd never rape her," Adam said, and then he frowned as he realized something, "I'm 172 years old, and I have never had sex. I've seen and felt it happening in the minds of the mortals I have devoured, but I have never done it. Perhaps I should hire a prostitute?"
"Perhaps," Helena said. "You can do that in Florence, you've always wanted to see Florence, haven't you?"
"Yes, I have," Adam said. "You want me to go to Florence while you stay with Properzia, don't you?"
"Yes," Helena said.
"I guess I could do that even though I don't like to be so far away from you... not now when you're..." Adam sighed deeply.
"When I'm depressed, you can say it," Helena said. "I promise that I won't do anything hasty. And I will be too busy creating a network of women who can help each other to dwell in my depression. And it's not like you'd be too far for us to talk."
Adam nodded; their telepathic connection worked fine from hundreds of miles away. Even in Florence, Adam still would be able to talk to Helena. "Fine, I will go to Florence," he said, offering his wrist to Helena. "But only if you take more of my blood. I want you to be strong."
On the way out of the Florence Adam met German occult writer and philosopher Agrippa. The occult writer's mind interested Adam so much that, instead of going to Florence, he befriended with Agrippa and followed him to Cologne. Adam spent the next years first as a student at the University of Cologne and later he taught autopsy techniques to willing students of medicine.
The Republic of Florence (Italy), 1524
Adam finally entered Florence at the end of 1524, and it was booming with artists, philosophers, writers, and scholars. He felt as if the crème de la crème of human minds had decided to live in Florence. Which was the reason Adam had wanted to visit there; he wanted to see if renowned scholars were as intelligent as Helena.
Adam introduced himself as a Wallachian nobleman and told them about legends about vampires in Transylvania and Wallachia. Adam got the philosophers attention when he introduced them to an idea of a vampire with a human soul who was born as an adult vampire without any memories of ever being a human.
Two weeks later, Adam heard that someone had published an essay about it. Adam paid a man to copy it. When he read the essay was baffled when he read it; the writer, Niccolò Machiavelli, described the way his mind worked as if he knew him. Niccolò understood the primal nature of human beings even better than he did. Which really didn't surprise Adam; after all, he had never been a human.
"Lord Lupei, may I ask, what are you reading?" An older man dressed as monk asked Adam.
"Machiavelli's newest essay, padre," Adam replied, "He managed to get inside of a mind of a being that is not a human. He is a remarkable man."
"May I see it?" The monk asked.
Adam handed it to him and peeked inside of the monks' mind. "Padre, what is your name?"
"Ah, forgive me, Lord Lupei," he replied, "I'm Merlino Coccajo, a monk and a poet."
As Adam read his mind, he found it interesting that the monk had not introduced himself with his real name, but his pseudonym. From his mind, Adam got that, even though he was a firm believer he still had some knowledge about magic and he was sure that names had power. "Yes, I remember now, you are a macaronic poet," Adam replied, "And please, call me Adam."
He smiled. "Only if you call me Merlino."
"Agreed," Adam got up, "Merlino, I'm going to buy another bottle of wine, do you want anything?"
"I am fine, thank you," Merlino replied and started to read the essay.
"I think Niccolò is wrong if the undead has no memories about ever being a human, why would it create a morality code about killing innocents?" Merlino said after he had read the paper, "More likely it would kill without ever thinking about the lives it kills."
"True," Adam replied, "but you forgot the part where it devours the memories of its victims. Those memories would have an effect on it. After all, what else are we than the sum of our memories?"
"Then, if there is that kind of monster out there, we have to hope that its first victims would be highly moral and innocent people," Merlino replied, "If its first kills were murderers, it would see us as rodents."
Adam had not told the philosophers about Helena and how she taught him. "Maybe... what if he'd have a God-fearing teacher?"
"Interesting theory... but that is not what intrigues me in Niccolò's study. I believe that what we are is a combination of three parts: body, mind, and soul. Body, of course, is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. But..." Merlino scratched his jaw, and he lowered his voice before he continued, "my theory is that while the flesh is alive, all three are interconnected; what affects one affects all three of them. What I've been wondering is: how much does the mind affect the soul? If, as some believe it to be, our sinful actions taint the soul..." He stopped.
"Please, Merlino, continue, this is getting interesting," Adam smiled. "And at least up to this point I'm still with you."
"All our actions, be they good or evil, are triggered by the mind... if, in our youth, we have a teacher who teaches us what is good for our soul and what is not, as adults we should know what we are doing. But, if we grow up without any guidance... how can we know what taints the soul and what doesn't?" He said. "The boy who's abandoned by his parents and priests at an early age, who essentially raises himself, cannot learn the difference between good and evil. If that boy does something evil without knowing that it is a bad thing to do... how can that taint his soul? God would not be that cruel."
"So, ignorance is the key to heaven regardless of what you do?" Adam asked.
He laughed. "It is not that simple, we have to take Our Lord's words into account: I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. But, you are partly right, assuming that the ignorant boy believes in God and Christ, but have not learned any other teachings of Our Lord and doesn't know the difference between good and evil... then I believe he has redeemed his place in the heaven. Sometimes ignorance can be a blessing."
Adam raised his eyebrow, Merlino's ideas were very close to being heresy. "You do know that the church does not share all your ideas?"
Merlino smiled. "That is why I have been talking so tacitly that no human would be able to hear me," suddenly his hand reached on me and he cupped my face. "You are cold, you are a vampyr."
"Well... this is interesting," Adam said when he heard Merlino's thoughts. "A catholic monk and a demon hunter."
"A Watcher," Merlino said, "I'm a researcher, not a hunter."
Adam sighed when he smelled his fear, "Don't be afraid. I do have a soul, and I kill only evil men and women. I won't kill you or anyone who doesn't deserve to die." As he took a sip from the wine cup, Merlino created a quite formidable wall around his mind. "You are well trained... may I ask how did you figure out what I am?"
"I didn't, but knowing what I know about vampires and demons... I'm just a paranoid man. And paranoia has kept me alive this far."
Adam leaned on him and took hold of his wooden crucifix. "See? It doesn't burn me, I am not the type of a vampire you are used to."
"So it seems," he admitted.
"You don't have natural magical ability, your mind shield is good, but I could get through it if I want to," Adam said, "frankly, I will do that because you're going to send a report to Watcher's Council and I don't much like the idea of them or any other vampire-hunting organization knowing about me. But for now, I just want to be friends with you."
"Why?"
"I have a tutor who has taught me a lot about humanity, but she was young when she was turned into one of us. She doesn't understand humanity the way you do. There still are many things about humanity I don't understand. I choose you to teach me more about humanity. From now on, I will live with you and emulate you," Adam said. "If you say no, I will not kill you. I will just break into your mind and make you forget that you ever met me."
For a long time, Merlino was drinking wine, staring at Adam before he said, "I'd be glad to be your guide. But I have one condition."
Adam smirked. "You dare to set conditions to a vampire?"
"I believe that you won't mind this; I want to write a book about you."
"That would be okay as long as I can read it first," Adam said.
"You can read it as I write it. I don't care if it will be published or not. Writing just is my way of focus my thoughts on something," Merlino said, "if you devour souls, memories, and minds, you can answer one of the questions that have been in my mind: does the eternal soul carry memories with it after the body is dead?"
"Yes, it does," Adam replied. "Although I don't think them as souls, I think them as essences of men. I take my victim's memories and thought patterns, and the power they have within them, but which they have no use for," he shrugged. "Maybe that power is the soul, maybe it is not, I don't know nor do I care what it is."
Merlino nodded. "We have to talk more about this, we can learn a lot from each other."
"And you don't have anything against my erasing your memory when we're finished?"
"I would prefer if you wouldn't, because what could be more frustrating than finding answers to your questions and then forgetting them? But it would be better than death..., and Watcher's Council already knows about you. They don't know that you are a vampire, but you and small female they call Little Death have been killing vampires for years now, and that caught our attention," Merlino calmly explained. "That is one of the reasons I came to Florence. One of our researchers predicted that the next city where you and Little Death will appear will be Florence. My job is to find out why two of you are so good at killing vampires and why you hunt then. The current theory among watchers is that the Little Death is a second Slayer, and you are her brother."
"She's not a Slayer, and, before I read your mind, I didn't even know what a slayer is. Can I guess that you don't know where current Slayer is, or do you?"
"We do know where she is," Merlino said. "Two Slayers, that is impossible, and that always has been the fault in that theory, but can you blame us not realizing that there are vampires who hunt vampires in the world?"
Adam nodded. "No, I cannot blame you for not realizing that we are vampires. You didn't know that there are vampires with souls."
"Actually, Council has always known about Midians, although we have thought that the Death hunted and killed all of your kind four thousand years ago," Merlino said. "In fact, it is believed that getting rid of your kind was why God let one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse roam free in the world before it was his time to come here."
Adam raised my brow. "You are talking about the Biblical horseman Death?"
"Yes."
"And what kind of a being is he?"
"Just what the name implies. He is the personification of death. Probably a hell god, or at least that's one of the theories," Merlino said. "No one has seen or heard about the Death over two thousand years, it is believed that after he hunted and killed all Midians, he went back to hell to wait for the final Apocalypse."
Adam nodded, that sounded plausible if you believed that the Death existed. "Why are you telling all this to me?"
Merlino leaned back on his chair and smiled nervously. "To show you that I am so valuable that keeping me alive is in your best interests," he sighed. "And I don't understand why the Council wants to kill are doing God's work by killing demons."
"I kill humans too, they are my food."
"True, but if you truly are, as I suspect, a Midian there is nothing Council can do to stop you. Your kind is as close to the immortality as anyone can be. That is why God let Death out from the hell to kill all of you; only the Death himself can kill your kind."
Adam took the wine bottle and got up. "We must take this to a more secure place," he said, "follow me... and don't try to escape, there is no escape from me."
Merlino got up. "Please, don't kill me."
"I give my word that I will not kill you, and I always keep my word. Are you hungry? We could order food before we go back to my place, I don't have any food in there."
Merlino chuckled nervously. "It would have surprised me if you'd have human food... I am fine, I ate just before I came into the tavern."
They had been walking only a few moments when they saw a man harassing a woman, and then the man pulled out a knife. While everyone else was running away, Adam rushed into action. He grabbed the man from the wrist and twisted it behind him. The man smelled alcohol, turpentine, and sweat. As Adam held him, he was shouting some insults at the woman.
"Michelangelo," Merlino said, "are you trying to get arrested?"
That name startled Adam so much that he let the man go. "Michelangelo? The sculptor of David?"
"Indeed," Merlino replied.
"This asshole is the genius who made that magnificent statue?" Adam asked as he again grabbed Michelangelo's wrist when he tried to stab him. He shook his head and looked at the man. "You know, I would have expected a genius to have some manners even when he's drunk and high from the turpentine fumes."
"She's a hooker, and she won't let me fuck her even though I'm willing to pay!" Michelangelo yelled.
"Yes, well, I wouldn't let you fuck me either when you're in that condition," Adam said.
Michelangelo calmed a little and looked at Adam. "But you would if I'd be sober?" He asked, and then he smirked, "Of course you'd fuck me, everyone wants me."
Again Adam was so startled that he let Michelangelo go. Then he shook his head. "Incredible... why does he think that he should get whatever he wants?"
"Because he usually gets what he wants," Merlino said as he helped Michelangelo up from the gutter he had fallen on his ass.
"He's beautiful... a living David," Michelangelo muttered staring at Adam.
"Michelangelo, I'm flattered, but you wouldn't want to fuck me," Adam said.
"Why wouldn't I?" Michelangelo asked. "Do you have ugly scars or something..." His eyes widened. "That would be great! An angelic man with a hideous hidden scar, a God's way to tell people that he was too beautiful... I must draw you," he dropped on his knees and started to draw on the mud with his finger.
Adam glanced at Merlino. "He's quite insane, isn't he?"
"Not usually, no," Merlino said. "I don't really know him, but I hear that he's like this only when he's drunk. Usually, he's is just a bit eccentric. Then again, eccentric is just another word for insanity. It is used when brilliant people are acting insanely."
"Insane rich people are also called eccentric," Adam said, looking at a man at the end of the alley. "You can come and take care of your friend now. Merlino and I have to go."
"Is it safe for me to come?" The man asked. "Michela can be deadly when he has one of his drunken fits."
"I think it is safe; he's drawing in the mud," Adam replied, looking down at the muttering artist. "Correction, he's sculpting bust of me from the shitty mud."
The man took a deep breath and sighed loudly before coming to us. "It is safe then... he's in his own world now," he frowned looking at me, "Michela is right, you are beautiful."
"Thank you, but we really should be going... will you take care of him? And can you make sure that he won't attack anyone?" Adam asked.
"Yes," the man sighed, "I have been taking care of him for years now, and when he gets into the creative mood, he won't see or hear anything else than his work." He leaned down and gathered a pile of more firm mud from the gutter. "Michela... here, take this... let's go home, there you can work with the clay and marble."
Adam watched how the man led the drunken artist out from the alley. Then he turned to look at Merlino. "Insane, genius, but insane."
Merlino snickered. "Most geniuses are slightly insane."
"I suppose..." Adam raised his eyebrow when he realized something, "you're not afraid of me anymore?"
"He tried to kill you, and you only stopped him, and you even did that without hurting him. If you'd be a cold-hearted killer, you would have killed him, or at least hurt him." Merlino said.
Adam became Merlino's apprentice, and he found it to be a liberating experience. Adam felt like he wasn't just a cruel predator. He still went out to hunt, but he fed only when it was absolutely necessary. First months Adam was sure that Merlino would betray him to the Council he worked for, but, to his surprise, Merlino never mentioned him on the letters to the Watcher's Council.
Merlino and Adam became friends, which was something Adam had not expected, after all; he had spent most of his life hunting vampires. Not a field watcher, he was a researcher, but still, he'd been taught to hate vampires since he'd been born.
Adam wondered why Merlino was so willing to teach him, he could have gone through the shield his friend had built around his mind, but Adam didn't want to do that. He wasn't sure why he had started to think that reading Merlino's thoughts was wrong, but that was how he felt, and he didn't even try to read his friend's mind.
His thoughts were his thoughts — at least till I'd have to leave him, then I'd have to erase my existence from his mind.
Two years later, Adam was watching his friend eating his dinner in a tavern. "Why are you teaching me? Why do you like me?" he asked, "you know what I am, you've seen me killing, you've seen my fangs. You've seen the face of the monster I really am, and yet you stay with me."
"I didn't like you at first, but," Merlino said, "two years I've known you... it is hard not to love you. You are not a ruthless killer unless you have to be, you kill only people who deserve it, and you kill more vampires and demons than any Slayer. Not to mention that anyone who believes that all people should have equal rights regardless of their age, skin color, religion, or gender, cannot be evil."
"That's only because to me all humans look the same and you live such short time that you should take all out of the short decades you live," Adam said, "and I have met brilliant women, and it is a shame that human society is wasting their potential."
Merlino smiled. "And that is why I like you; you are more humane than most humans."
"Maybe, but I'm still a predator that hunts and kills humans."
"To feed, most humans kill other humans for fun or profit," Merlino said. "Council thinks that it is a good thing that there is a Midian in the world who is willing to hunt and kill vampires and as long as you keep doing that they will leave you alone."
"They're willing to leave a monster who kills humans alone?" Adam asked.
"It is basic mathematics. You kill six or seven people a week—"
"I don't need to feed every day, most weeks I kill only one human."
Merlino's eyes widened. "Really? Only one in a week?"
"Yes, sometimes I go for a hunt, but then I kill only murderers, rapists, and other thugs."
"...that is baffling news, most vampires need to feed every other day," Merlino said, "but that makes leaving you alone even more sensible. You kill less than a hundred humans in a year, and we estimate that you kill fifty to sixty vampires in a year. Killing them, you save all the humans those vampires would have killed. Since a normal vampire kills every other night, it means that thousands of lives are saved every year. And that number is growing exponentially."
"It cannot be like that," Adam said. "If that'd be true, all humans had to have been dead before I was born."
"True, most vampires die during their first year as the undead monster, and after ten years only one in hundred is still alive," Merlino said, "but the point is that many times more humans are saved by you than you kill for your food. We've always wondered why, except the one incident, you and Little Death don't kill for fun. But now that I know you, I know why you are not killing for fun. It isn't the soul that prevents you from killing, it is because you love humanity. Am I right?"
"Yes, I love humans, and I love trying to figure them out, and I love to watch how they are evolving. Humans are interesting."
"Exactly; as long as you find humans interesting you won't start killing spree, you only kill for the food," Merlino said, "and if you someday start killing humans for fun... then we will kill you and Little Death."
Adam snickered. "That would be fun," he said. "The truth is that I'm not sure if I even can be killed. Every time I feed, not only do I take the blood, but with it, I get their memories, and their strength and power. Helena, the vampire you call Little Death, calls us "soul eaters." Even when I devour other vampires into me, they aren't exactly dead. Their... essences are trapped inside me. Helena says that we are the closest thing of true immortals there is."
"She might be right on that, and we hope that you'll keep doing what you do. It helps us. It helps humanity."
After that talk, Adam spent a year more with Merlino and on the night he was going to leave the monk Watcher Adam was staring at his friend, wondering if he should erase his memories and destroy his notes about himself when a young scholar came into the tavern. The boy seated down on the next table. For a few seconds, Adam watched the boy drinking absinthe. Then Adam got up and smiled at Merlino. "I am leaving now, do not try to find me. You must lead your own life until, perhaps, someday I will return to you.
"Though I probably never will, the time means next to nothing to me and when I will remember you and want to come to meet you... by that time you probably have been dead for some time," Adam leaned on his friend and kissed him on the forehead. "Goodbye, dear Teofilo, I am most happy that you took me as your student, my friend," Adam then smiled to the boy staring at him as he disappeared into the shadows.
The boy jumped up and fell on his ass. "What the hell!"
Merlino sighed. "Just a mirage, my son. You should stop drinking absinthe... it is not good for your mind."
Akkerman, Crimean Khanate (Ukraine), 1526
Knights Templar might have been destroyed in 1307, but they had not been that easy to wipe off. Two centuries after they officially had been destroyed Knights Templar had reinforced to an Order of Saint John, and their Herrenmeister contacted Abraham Anker, the current head of Anker family.
Herrenmeister was a banker, and his guiding principle was to keep a low profile in order not to spook the markets, same as any good trader would do. Unfortunately, Abraham Anker had been a too good businessman, and some of the big players had started to worry about Abraham Anker's growing influence in the currency and loan markets.
Abraham Anker had already talked with the Herrenmeister and, to Abraham's surprise, the Herrenmeister had known about Adam's role as Anker Family's silent partner and wanted to talk with him. Adam traveled to Ukraine and met the Herrenmeister on a church.
"Nice church," Adam said as he sat beside the Herrenmeister. "my men will kill your men if they try to kill me when I walk out from this place." He didn't have any backup team, but Helena had taught him to create living shadows, and the church was surrounded by Herrenmeister's bodyguards and his shadows.
"Of course they will," the man said, "and same goes with your men trying to kill me. We are living hard times, a man can never travel without bodyguards."
"Unfortunately you are right, we are living dangerous times," Adam said. "do you know who am?"
"Adam de Vries is the name you used on your way here, but my spies found out that behind the name is Lord Lupei of the Societas Draconistarum. Although I have a former member of that particular order in my payroll and he cannot remember you. So, I suspect that Lupei is a false name too."
"Adam Lupei is and is not a false name, it is close to the name I was born with, and I can claim to have royal blood flowing in my veins. My grandmother was a bastard daughter of King Sigismund, and by inherited right, I should have had a seat on the Order of the Dragon. So, I decided to claim my rightful place without asking anyone. Isn't that the way new noble families are born?"
All that was a lie, but Adam's claim that he was the grandson of King's bastard daughter would be hard to deny. There were records of King Sigismund recognizing a young woman as his bastard daughter and the young woman's name had not been mentioned in any of the papers.
He burst into laughter. "Yes, that is the way noble families are born," he said, "may I introduce myself; I'm Joachim Schlabrendorff, The Herrenmeister of the Order of Saint John and the Chief Officer of The European branch of Wolf, Ram, and Hart."
"Pleased to meet you," Adam said.
"Good to know that you have royal blood in you. It always is easier to deal with blue-blooded people than with commoners," Schlabrendorff said. "we have to form an alliance, one man and one bank gaining such good profits are causing troubles on the market."
"So, what are you suggesting?"
"Same thing I always suggest to new players: let us spread the money, risks, and profit around. We can make more money for you, and we can hide you from officials. You have to pay a small fee, but no one will notice when profits are spread all around the known world. From North to South, West to East," Schlabrendorff said. "I know what you and your sister are. My firm is used to dealing with supernatural beings."
"Which firm would that be?" Adam asked.
"Wolf, Ram, and Hart."
Adam raised his eyebrow. "What did you mean when you said that you are used to dealing with supernatural beings?"
"Immortals, vampires, demons... we don't discriminate, we create an account to anyone willing to pay. We know how to hide your wealth. We handle many things for customers who have a long life expectancy or otherwise might need the proxy to deal with the authorities. We know about your deal with Ankers, and we already have discussed with them," Schlabrendorff said. "We can handle all your dealings that might need contact to banks, officials, or any other legal issues. New identities, buying and selling property, transferring almost anything to almost anywhere, in fact, the deal we made with Anker and Lady Helena actually help us with any issues that involve any kind of money transfers. In future we are using his—or should I say your?—banks whenever we need to transfer funds inside Europe."
"Banks aren't mine, I'm just a silent partner," Adam said, he didn't like that Abraham Anker had agreed to handle demons monies, but he couldn't do anything about that. Schlabrendorff had just told him that Helena had agreed to this deal.
Adam had a short telepathic discussion with Helena, who was close enough for him to connect her. She told him that Wolf, Ram, and Hart were three high ranking demons and their company was ruled by demons. She also told Adam that already had an account in Wolf, Ram, and Hart and that she had agreed that their bank would handle Wolf, Ram, and Hart's money transfers in Europe. Apparently, they would get 2% of every money transfer.
"Very well, I like to open two accounts, one for Lord Adam Lupei and another for Adam de Vries," Adam said.
"Of course, Lord Lupei, that was exactly what I thought you would do," Schlabrendorff said. "and we're honored to have the oldest known Midion as our client."
"I know that it is ruled by higher-ranked demons, so I must demand that you won't write any clause that would make me or my sister lose any of the souls we have," Adam sighed. "Do not try to put anything else into the contract but what Lady Helena agreed. Believe me; you do not want us to get angry at you."
Schlabrendorff nodded. "So I have been warned. Apparently last time one of our branch offices tried to hustle with a True Midian, the branch office in question disappeared from the face of the earth, and so did half of the city it was in. That happened 150 BC, and we still remember it. We learned our lesson, and we will never again try to rip off a True Midian."
Adam got up. "Good to know, I hate it if I have to destroy things just to show that I can... arrange all of the paperwork and send it to my sister in Bologna, she handles all the contracts. I will meet her in Bologna two weeks from now, and I'll sign the contracts if she tells me that it is safe to sign them."
"Of course, Lord Lupei," Schlabrendorff said.
Adam nodded. "I hope that the future will show me that it is nice to do business with you," he said and as he walked out from the church the shadow creatures he had created disappeared. He got into the horse carriage and told his driver to take him to the harbor. He needed to eat, and then he'd hurry back to Bologna to Helena. He had been separated from his sister for seventeen years, and he missed her terribly.
While they had been separated Helena had taken a few other artistic girls under her wings, but Properzia was the one she was most proud of; the girl had overcome many obstacles in her way of becoming an artist. Inside of her Properzia still had the young woman who had been enthralled by the gargoyle, but she now was a respected artist and sculptor.
A week later Adam met Helena in Bologna, and a week from that they were traveling toward Rome. Helena kept telling Adam that going to Rome was a huge mistake, but Adam ignored her, he wanted to see Rome, the Eternal City. Adam, like every vampire and demon in the world, knew that the Vatican had its own demon hunters; The Iscariot, but Rome was a metropolis. Adam was sure that there was no chance for them to meet Iscariot agents.
They had been in Rome less than half a day when they walked by a café, and older priest jumped up and cried, "The Antichrist! That man is the vampire I met during the Battle of Hemmingstedt he told me he is the Antichrist!"
Groaning in annoyance, Adam took a quick glance into the priest's mind. It was Eilert, the boy he had left alive over two decades earlier. He now was a priest working for the Iscariot. Six of the Priests in the café with Eilert drew out flintlock pistols.
Ignoring the pistols aimed at her Helena glared at Adam. "What did I say?"
Adam sighed. "I know, I know, coming to Rome was a stupid idea."
TBC
In the next chapter, Adam/Xander will get the nickname "The Butcher of Rome," and they will join Vlad Dracul (Alucard) on his war against Ottomans that he decided to continue after he'd been turned into vampire. (I think that it would fit on the real Vlad Țepeș's character) Adam/Xander will make his second vampire daughter and Helena, her first vampire son. Also, Adam/Xander and Vlad will be eating (devouring) an army of 100 000 men.
Fun times ahead...
Everything below I've copied from Wikipedia. This is funfiction (Not a typo, I write these for fun and I prononuce fun the way that makes it sound fanfiction when I say it.) so I couldn't be bothered to do any research. Reading what Britannica and Wikipedia says about the people and events i implant into this story is good enough research for a funfiction story.
Properzia de' Rossi(c. 1490–1530), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. She studied under the Bolognese artist and master engraver Marcantonio Raimondi, who is best known today for his engravings after paintings by Raphael.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer.
The University of Cologne (German: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. Established in 1388 it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. I spent a year and a half there without learning anything, but that wasn't the university's fault. When you have a mind of an engineer you shouldn't try to study art history.
Florence was a center of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. By some academics it is considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469–1527) was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, writer, playwright, and poet. He has often been called the father of modern political science.
Teofilo Folengo (1491–1544), who wrote under the pseudonym of Merlino Coccajo or Merlinus Cocaius in Latin, was one of the principal Italian macaronic poets.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He's best known for 5m tall marble statue of Biblical David and the fresco on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling.
The Order of the Dragon was a monarchical chivalric order for selected nobility, founded in 1408 by Sigismund von Luxembourg who was King of Hungary. Allegedly, the most notorious member of the order was Vlad Țepeș better known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad III Dracula.
Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437) was King of Hungary, Croatia, Germany, Bohemia, Italy, and later Holy Roman Emperor. He was the last male member of the House of Luxembourg.
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff (1907-1980), was a German jurist, soldier, and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler. He has nothing to do with my story's Schlabrendorff, I just like his name and the story of his life. I strongly suggest you to read his great book The Secret War Against Hitler (Der Widerstand : Dissent and Resistance in the Third Reich). Schlabrendorff, Fabian von, Hilda Simon. Westview Press, September, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-2190-5