Chapter 2: Tormented Mask

From where I was, I cautiously glanced over Abel's shoulder and watched as he confidently challenged the vampire, Andros, to a battle of strength. All so that he could potentially protect me, but if he lost in that battle, he would die right along side me. So quietly I whispered, "Father, it won't do anyone any good if you go and get yourself killed. Risking your own life, just to have a hope of saving me, it's...it's not right." Closing my eyes, I smiled. "There are others out there who need your help far more than I do. I can accept my fate. I really can. But I can't accept the idea of you dying for me."

With a hint of satisfaction, the vampire laughed insanely. "Do you hear that, Priest? That girl doesn't want your salvation! She wants to die tonight! By my hands no less!"

Through gritted teeth, my voice came out as a growl. "Shut up! Don't you understand that I would prefer to live? But Father Abel's human..." Looking down, I took a breath before continuing. "Just like I am...But unlike me, he gives others a hope to believe in. A hope that's like no other."

"Jonah..." Abel whispered, and trace of happiness having been drained from his face. Then almost as soon as he'd spoken, he set his jaw in a hard line, his eyebrows becoming furrowed and his eyes began to gain a hint of undiluted hatred. Finally after a moment had passed, he calmly stated, "Jonah, I can't allow you to throw your life away so easily. I don't care about how you try to reason it out to yourself or to others, but it all comes down to one thing. We are all children of God, the very life that he has given you is special enough because you are alive! I won't stand by idly while that precious gift is obliterated!"

Words failed me, and all that I could think to do was to nod silently, thankful that this priest wasn't so easily swayed in his holy endeavors as I had originally thought he to be. I was so thankful that my prayers of being saved were actually being answered.

"Good girl. Now Mr. Nakomi, this is the one and only chance I'm going to be offering you to give yourself up. Not to mention to come peacefully." Abel warned with a darker tone hidden deep within his normally kind voice.

Laughing at the threats, the vampire flexed his fingers and instantly the nails on his left hand grew to nearly a foot in length. "Go on and keep your dreams alive for as long as you can you Vatican lap dog! But what hope could you possibly have of beating a Methuselah, like myself? A punch from a Terran like you is nothing more than an early spring breeze upon my face." Scowling, he prepared to attack both Abel and myself.

Quickly removing his glasses, Abel handed them to me over his shoulder, and kneeling down he whispered, "I don't want you anywhere near this. You hear me? It's not something that I want you to see!"

"But Fath-"

"No 'buts'! I want you to find an escape and take it! Look for Father Tres if you can. He'll protect you, but if you aren't able to find him in the next five minutes, then run to the safest place that you can think of. And stay there! I will come and get you as soon as I can, I swear it." Beneath the light of the twin moons, I could see the sadness of a man who had been tormented by the things that he couldn't control.

A sadness that he desperately tried to hide from those around him.

So reaching up, I gently touched my hand to his cheek. "Just be careful, Father. I'll be cheering you on." Pulling my hand back, I held onto the eyeglasses of my savior and hurried off, looking for a safe way to reach the ground below.

Staying behind, Abel glowered, "This could have ended so easily, and without a fight." Taking his left hand, he pinched one end of the black ribbon that held his long hair back and gave it a small tug, pulling it undone. His hair, no longer restrained, fell down to his waist. Then placing the long, thin ribbon inside of a pocket, Abel spoke. His words drenched with his unending sadness, "Though the path that often points to a successful mission isn't always the easy one. I've come to expect that. But please, do not think that for one second I am going to relish the idea of what it is that I have to do. Because believe me...I don't, and neither should you."

Spitting at Abel's words, Andros angrily yelled out, "Enough of this meaningless drivel!"

The sorrow within his eyes deepened, then with a defeated sigh, he unwillingly gave in and relented to the vampire's demands. "As you wish."

The vampire sprang up into the air with inhuman strength and speed, making sure that when he landed he would be directly behind the priest. A move that offered him the perfect chance to attack him at a weak point. Yet no attention was spared on the blood crazed monster.

"You can't say that I didn't warn you. Nano-machine...Crusnik 02...power output...forty percent...activate!" The humble man began to fade away, while taking his place was a creature borne from within the darkness, and whose strength rivaled that of even a vampire.

Abel's blue eyes, the same color of a pond in the midst of a frozen winter, became tainted and turned a shade darker than blood. Extending from his upper lip and working their way down, two fangs gleamed brightly under the natural light of the twin moons. His hair, seemingly gained a life and mind all of its own, flew up and formed a writhing, unruly crown above his head. His skin white as alabaster, grew ashened. And silently, he opened his right hand, holding his arm out in front of his body. Calling forth a double-bladed scythe. A weapon made from his very bones and blood. Its exterior was of a skeletal build, while its color was a metallic red.

Witnessing Abel's transformation, Andros halted his attack and landed on his feet several yards away from his opponent. Fear obviously reflecting from within his eyes. "What...what in the Hell are you?!"

Not even attempting to withhold anything, Abel spoke, his voice warped and containing no trace of its former kindness. "I am what is known as a Crusnik. And thus it is my codename within the section of the Vatican that is called the A.X. I am a vampire's vampire." Narrowing his eyes in distaste, he demanded, his tone harsh. "Is this meaningless drivel to you now?!"

The vampire turned on a heel and began to sprint away from the priest, but no matter how fast he ran, his speed wasn't even comparable to that of the Crusnik's. For Abel caught up with the fleeing vampire within seconds. Then fangs bared, and scythe in hand, he swung one of the sharpened crimson blades at Andros' torso. Hitting his mark, slicing the vampire into two pieces.

As the two halves of Andros Nakomi landed on top of the roof, Abel took the chance to return to his previous form. So as the fire in his eyes burned out, only to give way to their usual winter blue, as his hair fell limply against his back and shoulders, and opening his mouth, now absent of fangs, he remorsefully whispered, "I had really hoped that I could have gotten by without using the power of the Crusnik..."

Screaming out in pain, Andros was well within an inch of death.

Pity overtook the priest's face, and Abel now free of the Crusnik's dark influence, spoke quietly to both himself and to the dying ears of the vampire before him. "May our Lord and savior forgive you for the sins that you have committed while you have lived upon this Earth. Amen." He then drew his revolver out of the holster hidden beneath his overcoat, and as he did earlier, he made sure that there were bullets in each of the the gun's chambers. As soon as he knew that the gun was ready to be fired, he pulled back the hammer with his thumb and aimed the barrel of the gun at the vampire's head, and before he could stop himself...Abel pulled the trigger.

The sound of the shot resonated within his mind. Yet it was over. Andros was dead.

With a heavy sigh, he stowed away the revolver and slowly turned away from the corpse, heading in the same direction that I had gone. When he reached the edge of the roof, by chance, Abel looked to his right. His gaze fell upon me, sitting with my back pressed up against the brick siding of the house, my knees drawn in close to my chest.

"I'm sorry..." Was the only thing that I could say. Unable to bring myself to look him in the eyes, I held out his glasses in one hand and as soon as I felt their weight lift from my palm, I drew my hand back close to my body.

Fitting his glasses back on, he asked, almost pleaded, "Why did you go against my orders? Why did you stay behind?"

"I wanted to see what you would do to him...but I never..." My voice trailed off as a tremor shook my body, I couldn't help but to hug my knees tighter. "I never imagined it would be done that way..."

Sitting next to me, the man who had turned out to be far more than just a simple priest from the Vatican, he quietly stretched out his long arms and legs. "It was never my intention to frighten you, Jonah...I am sorry..."

"You haven't frightened me. Shocked would be a more appropriate term, but not frightened." I lied, trying my best to not add onto the anguish that already riddled Abel's mind. "How did you do that though? What was that thing?"

"That was the Crusnik that resides within my body...I hate having to rely upon it...but sometimes I am left with no other alternative..." Looking down at his hands as they trembled with both hatred and disgust, he slowly clenched them up into tight fists, muttering as he did so. "I'm a monster!"

Shaking my head, I told him the very words that were on my mind, "You're not a monster. A monster would have simply left me to die. Trust me, Father Nightroad, like I trust you. You are the farthest thing from a monster that there is."

The ghost of a smile flitted upon his lips, and disheartened he whispered, "Thank you."