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Chapter 3:

Same day as last chapter

(June 10, 3060 AD: Vatican)

It happened so fast. In the span of only a second, the vampire hulled Abel up by his hair and hurled him at a building. Abel's head bounced off the wall, and his vision swam. The vampire was before him in a millisecond, and before Abel knew it the vampire was leaning over him, his face in the crook of his neck.

Fangs scraping over his neck was the only warning Abel got as the vampire sank his fangs into him.

Abel went rigid. His entire world exploded in pain, unlike anything he ever experienced before.

It felt as if his blood was replaced with sand, and each gulp the vampire took rubbed his veins raw. With each drop that left him, Abel's heart pumped harder to make up for the lost blood but all it did was race to the wound on his neck where the vampire was still latched on.

Move damn it! Abel screamed in his mind. But he couldn't. It hurt too much to even try. His limbs felt like led, and if not for the vampire holding him, Abel was sure he would have collapsed by now.

His blood was turning sluggish, and still the vampire tried to suck him dry. His heart was slowing with the lack of blood to pump. It burned! His veins felt as if it had been rubbed raw and then torn to shreds.

Curse whatever moron thought getting your blood sucked by a vampire would feel better than sex!

"Stop," Abel rasped, just as an ivory blur appeared behind the vampire and a silver dagger flashed in the moonlight.

The vampire howled in pain and blood gushed from his mouth and onto Abel just as the blur materialized and snarled, "release the Terran!" in a language Abel barely recognized. One that wasn't spoken anymore.

The vampire released Abel. It's breath was ragged as it twisted to pull out the dagger in his shoulder. But Abel felt no pity for the monster that was now in pain and kicked the vampire away.

"Tend to the Terran," a male voice said as two figures appeared out of the shadows and advanced on the vampire. "We'll handle this rogue."

"This is stupid, the Terran won't understand me," Abel's savior said. The woman drew a hand through her ivory hair as she looked down at Abel.

"Astharoshe!" the male snapped.

"Yeah, yeah!" the woman grumbled. "I heard you Uncle Virgil! But he still won't understand what I say!" Astharoshe eyed Abel and his bloodied neck and huffed as she hoisted her bag and opened it, grabbing bandages.

Abel groaned, warily watching her every motion. Like hell, would he let some random person clean his wound! His neck already felt numb and Abel knew it would be healed within a hour… his crushed arm on the other hand would take a while.

"This is like talking to a deaf man," Astharoshe mumbled. "I'm going to clean your wound," she motioned to the bandages and towel in her hand. "Not that you understand me." She leaned forward, reaching for Abel's hand which was clamped on his neck.

"Don't touch me," Abel snapped, slapping her hand away.

"What!?" The other woman next to Virgil gasped, just as Astharoshe said, "he knows the Imperial tongue?"

Abel ignored them though, and pushed himself off the wall. He nearly fell as his legs took on the full weight of his body, but he forced himself to limp his way to Esther.

The princess was frozen with fear even when they were now safe. The poor girl had never seen someone die before. Friend or enemy, it was obvious the Princess felt some remorse over what happened to the two vampires that would have killed her if Abel hadn't shot them. She shivered, wrapping her fragile arms over her torso.

"Are you ok?" Abel asked as he kneeled before the princess.

The girl just blinked, slowly dragging her eyes away from the bodies and to Abel. She flinched.

Abel's insides curled and recoiled at the action. She hated him! Those eyes! Abel could see the fear in them. But they weren't toward the vampire. No, Esther was scared of Abel.

Abel stood, tugging his hood lower over his face. "You're safe now. These people can take care of you," he said gently. Turning, Abel didn't meet anyone's gaze as he spoke in that same ancient language they called the Imperial tongue. "Astharoshe is it? Please tend to her wounds."

"What!? How do you know my name?" Astharoshe barked the question.

Virgil called you that a minute ago, Abel wanted to state but stayed silent. He knew he wasn't welcomed here anymore. After all he'd just killed in front of the crown princess. Damn it! What a stupid move! He'd be on the most wanted list as soon as Esther returned home! Even if he protected her, he'd still hurt her mentally.

"Answer me, Terran!" Astharoshe disappeared and reappeared before Abel. She moved like a vampire! Her hand snaked around the collar of his coat and she hefted him up. "Tell me!" she snarled, fangs flashing.

"Astheroshe Asran! You put that man down, right now!" Virgil ordered, racing toward the three of them just as Abel slammed the elbow of his good arm into Astharoshe's jaw.

The woman's head barely snapped back and she gave him a good shake in response.

"But Uncle," Astharoshe's voice almost seemed to take on a whine.

"You're awakened now, you could harm a Terran without even knowing it."

Astharoshe huffed and released her grip on his cape. Abel took a step back. He was careful not to get to close to Esther, but now he was wary of leaving her side. Astharoshe was as quick as a vampire, she even had fangs. Abel cast a glance to Virgil then to the lady who helped him take care of the vampire who drank Abel's blood.

They were all vampires.

And to think just an hour before, Abel was agains the idea of myths coming alive.

"What are you guys?" Abel asked.

"We're Methuselah. My name is Virgil Walsh." The man lifted his hand up to shake but Abel didn't move to grab it. There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, and Abel was sure he heard Astharoshe huff before Virgil finally dropped his hand. "Ah, are handshakes not the norm anymore? I apologize."

He was not expecting Abel to give his name was he? The uncomfortable silence returned. Aw, hell. He was, wasn't he. No way in hell was Abel giving out his name!

"Methuselah?" Abel asked instead.

"I believe your kind would compare us to vampires, but we prefer to call ourselves Methuselah," Virgil stated.

"And why did you help me?"

Astharoshe rudely let out a breath. "Because you looked like you needed help."

"But I just killed two of your people," Abel pointed out.

"I don't need an excuse to help people!" Astharoshe snapped. "And they're not our people. They're rogues."

Virgil softly sighed. A look of exasperation crossing his face. "Your Aunt is such a bad influence on you," he whispered so softly that if Abel had been a normal human he wouldn't have caught it.

"Right…" Abel said slowly. It didn't look like they were about to hurt Esther, so maybe he could leave now. "I'll be going now." He made to move but was stopped by a firm hand. Abel frowned, glaring through his shades at the man.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions first," Virgil said. "First off, how do you know our native tongue?"

Fine, Abel would play along for now.

"Books."

"Are Terrans usually so willing to leave their companions behind?" Virgil fired another question, motioning to Esther.

"We aren't traveling together."

"Would you be willing to teach my people the language of this land?" He asked another.

"No."

Virgil nodded, not even arguing to try to persuade Abel otherwise. He seemed to study Abel and locked his gaze on the reflective glass of Abel's shades before he asked, "what's your name?"

Abel glared, "my name is none of your concern."

"I suppose you're right," Virgil relented and dropped his arm. "However, what are you? It's clear you aren't a normal Terran. If you were, you would have been dead by now. And you're clearly not a Methuselah."

"But I am alive, and I am a human," Abel replied. "I'll be going now."

He gave a short nod and stepped to the side. But his vision blurred, his head swam, and his ears rang. Abel forced himself to stop moving as he focused on the ground, trying to regain his equilibrium. It wasn't helping though, and even as he continued breathing, darkness consumed him from all sides.

His mind yelled at him, to snap out of it. Abel could still feel his feet beneath him even as he swayed. Knew the Methuselah were shouting at him, though he couldn't make out the words. His eyes were open, but all Abel could see was darkness.

"Damn it," Abel growled loudly, but to him his own voice sounded muffled. He was going to pass out... or maybe he already had.

A/N: This is an AU, so any problems you may have with Asthe calling Virgil, Uncle, should be taken up with the AU gods. On that note, Virgil is not related to Asthe by blood, it's just what she calls him. The only blood relation she has, is to Sulaymon.

This is the shortest chapter I've had in a while. Only 1.5k words. I remember when all my chapters of my first fan fiction had 1.5k words. But anyway, I couldn't bring myself to write more for this chapter.

Thank you for any reviews, positive or negative, they're greatly appreciated and helpful.