 
Vampire Church

Copyright 2019 Catherine Malebranche

Published by Catherine Malebranche at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Epilogue
Part 1

1

He awoke at seven o'clock in the evening. He never could be awake during daylight hours because the Sun would burn him terribly.

That was the worst part about being on Earth.

The vampire came from Hell through a portal. In Hell, there was a different Sun and he could be awake during daylight hours. Unaccustomed to living nocturnally, he missed daytime. He would simply go back, but he had a mission, assigned to him by his clan's leader. He was to find an angel and transform him or her into a vampire.

This was not an easy task; by far, it was the most difficult one he was ever given. Being in the presence of an angel weakened a vampire, so it was not easy to bite an angel. Aside from this, he didn't know where to find an angel. At first, he searched near churches, certain he'd find one. He never could go inside a church, however, because holy ground was nearly unbearable for him to walk on. It weakened vampires to a great degree, but they still did have enough strength to enter a church to repent in the event they wished to. In this event, what typically happened was that an angel or saint would appear to the vampire out of the eyesight of anyone else in the church and take the vampire to a church in Heaven to begin the process of curing the vampire.

Even in the proximity of a church, the cross was nearly unbearable to a vampire. The vampire wondered if he'd even have been successful had there been an angel outside any of the churches, because the cross weakened him so much. Then the angel would have weakened him more. He didn't think that he would have had the strength to complete the task and bite the vampire.

In the back of his mind, he knew this task was impossible to complete, especially for someone who now regularly failed tasks. He used to complete tasks with ease, and climbed the ranks in his clan quickly, but then he started slacking off and he started failing task after task. This task was given to him as a chance to prove himself, to show that he really wasn't a failure. It would restore him to his former glory.

This promise drove him to continue on with this impossible task. His next thought was to go somewhere where angels would be called upon to help or protect people. After some deliberation, the vampire decided to try hospitals.

It was nearly dawn by the time he got to a hospital, so he needed to find a place to sleep. Having to sleep out of direct sunlight, the vampire searched for a good place and found a well in the garden that was on the hospital grounds. Luckily for him, it didn't have water in it so he climbed down the well's ladder. The ground was completely dry, indicating that the well hadn't been used in some time. He laid down along the side wall and went to sleep.

He awoke in the evening, just after sunset, and felt around the walls for the ladder. Looking up, he noticed that there was a soft glow on the walls higher up, closer to the well's opening. He figured the glow was from the moon.

From this light, he was able to find the ladder above, and thus found the bottom rungs. He climbed up....

To his surprise, he saw what he last expected as he climbed the ladder. The glow wasn't from the moon at all – it was from an angel who was standing beside the well, looking down at him. The angel, who was male, watched his every move as he climbed up. Already he felt weakened by the angel's presence, but he thought he'd be able to bite him as he got closer. However, the angel stepped back from the well when the vampire got within reach of him, and the vampire's hopes drastically fell.

"How your kind always dares to mock the righteous!" The angel said angrily. The angel had reddish-brown hair, a narrow face, blue eyes, was thin and appeared to be in his fifties but he was actually hundreds of years old.

"What? By sleeping in a well?" The vampire asked. He had blond hair, a rounder face, brown eyes, athletic build, and was in his thirties, which was his actual age.

"You're outside of a hospital. Clearly you were planning on going inside tonight, when you could walk around, and get some blood from a storage room. Blood that patients need. You are no patient." The angel said.

"That is not what–"

"I will not hear it! Your kind is no good. You will go back to Hell, but first, I actually have use for you. You must serve me for now. And then you'll go back where you belong!" The angel said strictly. He then dragged the vampire with him to a nearby church. It was not the same one the vampire had loitered outside the night before.

"Ah, the cross! I can't take it! And I can't go in there!" The vampire said as they got closer to the church.

"I don't care how weak it makes you, you shouldn't be the vampiric monster that you are anyway!"

The vampire became very unhappy. He knew before this happened that it was likely he would fail this impossible task, but now he was sure of it. By taking him into a church, this angel was going to make sure he was in a weakened state, so he'd never have a chance to bite him.

They walked into the church, which was closed to the public. A sign outside of it said it was under renovation, but it didn't look to be on the outside or on the inside. It had been a long time since the vampire had been in one and remembered all too well why that was. He felt like he could barely stand up. Not that it mattered; the angel was still dragging him along so he had support, otherwise he'd fall over.

The vampire looked up at the stained glass windows. He recognized Jesus and Mary but didn't know the other people depicted. Maybe one was the namesake of the church, Saint Jerome. One was an archangel but he didn't know if it was Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael. What he did know is that all of these figures seemed to be watching him, staring, telling him how he will always be a sinner with this vampiric disease. They beckoned to him, asking him to get cured, but he ignored this divine call.

Aside from the weakness, he didn't like churches because of these divine figures. He felt like he was being watched at all times, and with that came scrutiny. It was as though these painted figures with their painted eyes could see not only him, but his entire past. They almost spoke to him: he had done bad, he was a sinner, and he needed to repent. Well, he would never repent, that was all there was to it. Vampires didn't repent, and with good reason. Doing so would make them mortal and when they were mortal, they were prey for vampires. In a bizarre way, they were afraid of themselves.

"Now, I am going to say my evening prayer and you will sit here in this pew until I am done at the altar." The angel said, shoving the vampire into the pew. He was happy that he didn't have to stand anymore. And at least he could close his eyes and stop thinking about the stained glass figures and their watchful eyes.
2

As he rested, he thought about what would happen when he returned to his clan. He almost thought that he was better off repenting and getting cured than ever returning to them.

Although he had failed so many his tasks before, but this was the worst failure yet. They wouldn't want to see someone of his lowly caliber again.

When the angel finished his prayer, he said, "Open your eyes and come up to the altar."

"If I come up to that altar, I will faint." The vampire replied.

"You will not." The angel insisted. With no choice, the vampire stood up – a struggle for him – and slowly walked to the altar.

"What do you need me for anyway?" The vampire asked. "And what is your name?"

"My name is Cyril. And you?"

"I'm Aiden."

"Alright, then. Here's what I need help with: there are two vampires that started living near here recently. I have only seen them in bat form, and they successfully avoid me every time I try to capture them. They fly very close to me and are not weakened, but I think I they are only stronger in their bat form and not in their human form and I am not sure why this is. I also fear that they are not alone. I need you to find them and come back to me and tell me where they are living. Then I can go to the location and see if there are others with them." Vampires and angels could sense one another, so although they were not weakened, Cyril could still identify that they were vampires.

"You're going to set me free and expect me to return?" Aiden asked. How trusting the righteous were, even in the face of evil. Aiden felt fortunate because he could remain a vampire and leave to try to find another angel somewhere else. Maybe he wouldn't be a failure anymore after all.

"I will let you leave the church, but, you're not going to be set free. Not at all." Cyril walked to the other side of the altar, where Aiden was standing. He regretted his thoughts from mere moments beforehand as, to Aiden's horror, Cyril secured a cross around his neck, with a lock on it in place of a necklace clasp. "There you go. Now you'll have to return as I am the only one with the key. You can't break it because it is enchanted with angelic magic that no evil can overcome. You can't go back through the portal you came through because you'll be mocked by the other vampires in your clan. You can trust that I will remove it, but only after you get me my information."

Aiden felt like he was being mocked by Cyril, though he knew he wasn't since angels didn't mock. And he already felt mocked by his fellow vampires because of his failures. Having a cross locked about his neck was not any way to return. But he also couldn't return without an angel. He decided to confess to the angel what he was doing at the hospital.

"The truth is: I am a complete failure in the eyes of my clan. I am already being mocked by them, so of course I know that returning to them like this is not a good thing. I would be thrown out of the clan because they would not think I could bring any glory to the clan. The leader I get my tasks from challenged me to transform an angel into a vampire, and if I did this, then I'd no longer be viewed as a failure. So, that's what I was doing at the hospital. It had nothing to do with stealing blood for patients." Aiden explained.

"So, are you saying that you do not want to return to them?" Cyril asked.

"I am saying that I do not think that I can."

"Are you saying you want to be cured?"

"I'm not sure. I want to think about it."

"Okay, I am pleased you are considering that. It is in your best interests although I know you think otherwise right now. Please take your time to think about it. In the meantime, get started with your task." Cyril replied.

"Alright, where should I go to look for these vampires?"

"They're not that hard to miss. If you walk around the general area, they'll start flying around you in their bat form." Cyril said.

With that, Aiden turned away from Cyril so he could leave the church and began his task.
3

Walking away from the altar, Aiden fell. The addition of the crucifix had made him so much weaker, he couldn't walk while inside of the church. Cyril helped him to his feet and supported him to the door. Once outside, Aiden found he could make his way down the steps alright, albeit slowly.

He felt his strength return the further he got from the church, but the crucifix kept him weaker than usual. Typically he felt so strong that he thought of himself as indestructible. Now with this detriment, he felt open to harm. A part of him even felt mortal.

Mortality. Aiden hadn't been mortal for fifteen years. It had all started as a dare. There was a rumor going around his high school about a vampire summoning spell. If the spell was said after dark, away from any religious places or objects, then a vampire would come to you. The risk was that if you summon a vampire, you'll get bitten and become one yourself. And the worst part was that by becoming a vampire, your soul would be condemned to Hell.

There was one other risk. The spell was kept in a museum, but it was not on display. Researchers were analyzing the spell and it was kept near religious objects so that, if it did really have summoning power, vampires would not appear when the researchers read the spell. One of Aiden's friends had a family friend who worked at the museum and he said that he'd ask him if he could see the spell. His plan was to steal it when the friend wasn't looking.

Neither Aiden nor any of his friends thought he was being serious. So when he one day told the four of them, two of which were girls, to meet him at the school football field after dark, they didn't expect him to pull out of his pocket the worn scrap of paper that held the spell. He had not read it yet because he thought they should all read it together. Just in case. Of course, he didn't actually think it was real. None of them did. And none of them wanted to read the spell, but the reason why no one wanted to was because the spell had been stolen and if any of them were ever asked about it and indicated that they knew what the spell said, then they would be in a lot of trouble.

However, after he called them all wimps for backing out, they started to feel pressured into reading it. Finally, he dared them and Aiden and his friends were the type of teenagers who could not back out of a dare.

One by one, they read the spell aloud. When nothing happened immediately, they all laughed and told their friend that he better take the spell back to the museum before people realize it's missing (which was realized already anyway; it had even made the news, but they hadn't known it).

Then something chilling happened when they all stopped laughing: someone else started laughing. And then another. And another. And another. And one more. Five others, one for each of the friends. And before they knew it, they felt a sharp pain in their necks and they all screamed as the vampires sucked their blood. Suddenly, the pain ceased as it all ended as quickly as it had begun.

The five friends never spoke to each other again after that. They all went their separate ways into separate clans. Aiden was the only one who joined the clan that the vampires who bit them were from.

Never being able to return home, it looked like they ran away to avoid punishment for theft of the spell. And while authorities mostly gave up their search, save for a few detectives, those that had been researching the spell had a suspicion that something else had happened. They didn't have religious objects around the spell merely out of superstition, they had them because they believed it could be capable of summoning vampires. They suspected that the teenagers could have been transformed into vampires, and they figured that if that had happened, then they'd never get the spell back.

At that time, 15 years ago, he thought about going to a church to get cured. However, he feared losing his immortality. Aiden knew that no mortal was safe from vampires. He thought that if he were to be cured, he could just as easily be bitten again. And also, vampires were not the only monsters of Hell that roamed the Earth, and if he were mortal again he knew he wouldn't be safe from any other monsters, either. So he accepted the life that he had.

As he walked in search of the vampires that Cyril wanted him to find, he realized that he really did not want to go back to vampiric life. Even though this sense of mortality that the cross around his neck brought him scared him, he also started to feel a sense of relief. He felt protected by it because he was serving someone else who could protect him from the monsters. He started thinking about what he would do if he did accept mortality once more. He could go back to his family and tell them what happened. As unbelievable as it was, the spell was being researched by professional scientists and archaeologists so he knew that someone believed in its potential power. But, would his family really believe him? He thought that would be impossible, so he resolved that he could never return to them.

Then where would he go? He was working for Cyril for now and could feel protected by him from monsters for now, but would Cyril need his help beyond this?

An idea came to his mind as he wondered this. He could just live in a church. He knew that there was no way for a vampire or any other monster to overcome the weakness that being in a church brought upon them. He'd have to become a priest to be able to live in a church, but if that's what it took, then he'd gladly take the opportunity.

That is, if Cyril would afford him this opportunity and ordain him as soon as possible. He couldn't be mortal and live outside of a church, or outside of Cyril's protection or the protection of some other angel or other being from Heaven. Well, he couldn't get ahead of himself, he'd just have to finish his task first and think about it all some more.
4

It didn't take long for Aiden to find the vampires. As Cyril had said, they came to him and flew around him incessantly. He found this quite annoying. They could sense that he was a vampire, though, so they landed after awhile and shifted into human form. They were female, possibly sisters. They both had slight bodies and short black hair, cut in a bob style, brown eyes, and they were young. The older one was no more than twenty, probably. They wore heavy gothic-style makeup and gothic clothes.

When they approached him, however, the unexpected happened: they were weakened. Quickly, they walked backward, yelling "Traitor!" Aiden knew that they were weakened because of the cross around his neck.

"Wait! I was sleeping outside a hospital looking to obtain blood and when I woke up, an angel was there!" Aiden lied. "He quickly locked this crucifix on me and then he left me, in agony from the weakness that this cross is bringing me. Can you take me back to where you live and help me get this off?"

"No, we won't be able to take something off that an angel locked on you. It is locked with magic. No vampire can override angelic magic, so you'd have to go to him and try to get him to take it off of you."

"I don't know where to find him. I've just been wandering, searching for others who can help me and now I've found you two. Please, at least help me find this angel! Help me convince him to take this off from about my neck!" Aiden knew that Cyril wanted information about where they lived, but he didn't think that was going to be an option now. All he could do was bring them to Cyril and at least he could question them.

The vampire girls looked at each other. After a moment, one nodded. The other one then turned to Aiden and said, "I think I know the angel you are talking about. We can take you to the church he lives in, but that's all we can do for you."

"But I can't face him alone, he'll never take this off of me. I need help. If all three of us go, he will be outnumbered."

"We'll get thrown out of our clan." The same one said.

"You can join my clan." Aiden offered. They looked at each other again. Without any nodding this time, they looked back at Aiden.

"Well, our clan wouldn't be too sad to see us go. They resent us for our experimentation with spells." The other one said.

"As you probably noticed, we weren't repelled by that crucifix until we shifted into our human form. That's because of a spell that we created." The first one said.

"Our fellow clan members say that we are violating protocol by creating spells like that. But we would never create a spell like this for our human form. We know we technically can't create something to prevent our weakness to Heaven, but this is only for when we're bats and our reason is simply so that we can enjoy flying around more. It's not enjoyable to feel weakened every time we fly past a church or something else we are weakened by. We thought they'd understand." The second one explained.

"And of course we've created other spells that our clan thinks violate protocol."

"Then come to my clan, we appreciate creativity." Aiden said. Although the whole conversation was a ruse to get them to come to the church, that was the worst of his lies. His clan would have kicked them out a long time ago. What they were doing was violating protocol and they were putting their clan at risk of being forced to disband.

There were very specific rules that were in place for vampires and the other monsters from Hell to follow. There were many rules, and they varied from monster to monster, but one that applied to all was that they were weakened by Heaven and all who lived there, and by all of the Earthly religious symbols and places of worship. They were not to do anything to tamper with magic to avoid being weakened, to do so was to void the rules.

The monsters were allowed to live the way they did because it was their choice. Just as any vampire could be cured, any other monster could be cured or live a different life either by returning to mortality or, in the case of those born immortal such as fallen angels, return to life in Heaven. It was the choice of the individual, and it was viewed by those in Heaven that taking away the free will of individuals would be wrong, so there were rules set into place for this.

Most people followed the rules, and those that did not were punished. There were various punishments ranging from banishment from Earth to loss of their choice to be monsters. The latter was a last resort that was not taken very much, and even after they lost that right, they were given back their free will after a certain amount of time. Banishment was also for set time intervals, no one was ever banished forever.

"Alright, let's go. The church is this way." The first vampire girl said and they began walking to the church.
5

Cyril was still behind the altar when they walked into the church. He watched, amused, as they helped each other walk to the altar. It was always amusing to see vampires walk around in a church.

Slow, stumbling, they were a fraction of what they were outside of a church. It showed the power that good had over evil.

"Welcome!" Cyril said loudly when the vampires were about halfway to the altar.

The vampires did not say anything, they just continued to make their way to the angel. It took several more minutes for them to get there.

"You will take this off my neck now." Aiden said.

"You're outnumbered!" One of the female vampires added. Cyril looked at her for a second before turning his gaze to Aiden.

"Technically, this isn't what I asked for. I wanted their location, not for you to bring them here." Cyril said.

"There wasn't much of a choice." Aiden replied. The vampire girls let go of him and he stumbled to his knees due to the sudden lack of support. On his knees, he felt the stained glass figures looking at him again and he prayed. He prayed that Cyril would let him become a priest so he didn't have to return to his clan. He also prayed for forgiveness from his sins and made it clear that he never intended for this life, it came about completely by accident.

In the meantime, Cyril told the other vampires what was going on. They looked at Aiden with extreme resentment as he stood up, but admitted he had no choice. Cyril locked crucifixes around their necks and ushered them into the church's office, locking the door behind them. He said he'd deal with them later, returning to Aiden.

"Thank you so much for finding them, Aiden!" Cyril said upon returning. "As promised, I will remove the necklace."

"I also want to talk to you about curing me."

"Of course."

"Well, I've decided that I don't want to return to my clan after all. I don't want to be a vampire anymore. In fact, I never wanted to be one to begin with, it was an accident." Aiden explained what happened as Cyril took unlocked the necklace.

"How interesting, I heard about that back when it happened. Do you have any idea where the spell ended up?"

"It fell on the ground when the vampires bit us. None of us are friends anymore so I can't say if any of them have found it since then, but I know that no one had it immediately afterward."

"Perhaps I'll start searching for it. That's not something that should be around, capable of falling into unknowing hands. Or worse yet, the wrong hands. Maybe you could help me yet again, as a human this time."

"No, no. I want to spend the rest of my life in a church. I wish to become a priest. I am truly sorry about all I have done and have prayed for forgiveness, and if I am a priest, no vampires or any other monsters will be able to get near me."

"You fear monsters at heart?" Cyril asked. Aiden nodded his response so Cyril said, "Very well. I understand, and you are not the first vampire to do this. In fact, the priest that used to preside over this church used to be a vampire. He had the same reason for becoming a priest as you do. He left this church, so you're very lucky because I was looking for a new priest. The church is closed now because I have been searching for a priest.

"In light of this, though, I have one more task for you while you are still a vampire. I hunt vampires, so to speak. I track them and I cure those that will for that, and others that do not get banished from Earth for a time. If possible, I destroy the clans of the vampires I cure. This isn't always possible, it typically takes much planning and since some clans don't stay in one place, finding them can be impossible. And as you know, some clans are more powerful than others, so there's not always an easy way to destroy them. But because of the task you were given, and because of another person who wants my help, for your clan, there is a very easy way. I don't even have to know anything about your clan, I have a plan already."
6

After hearing Cyril's plan, Aiden agreed that the clan could be disbanded very easily. There was a fallen angel named Eli who had been coming to him for about a year to confess his sins and ask for forgiveness. He wanted to be forgiven and accepted as an angel again. Eli had been forgiven, but Cyril had to ask a favor of him to prove himself, so he figured this would suffice.

The reason why this plan was so easy was the fact that Aiden was supposed to bring back an angel who he had bitten, which would make the angel lose their wings and become a fallen angel. Thus, upon sight, no one in the clan would suspect that Eli hadn't been bitten, since he had no wings.

Once Eli was presented to the clan's leaders, he would reveal that he is a fallen angel trying to get redemption and not a vampire. Then they would know that they would have to do whatever he asked. He would request the dissolution of the clan.

Although people had free will to be vampires, Cyril had every right to disband clans. Although they were allowed to choose to live that kind of life, it was not encouraged and so it was not a violation of the rules to disband clans of vampires or groups of other monsters.

Aiden was introduced to Eli briefly before they left the church. Eli had black hair, green eyes, and was about six foot five in height and he was muscular. It was almost dawn, so they had to make haste to return to the portal to Hell that Aiden had come through.

Cyril was happy with the outcome of meeting Aiden. He was happy to bring about the dissolution of a vampire clan, and happy to have turned Aiden's life around. He was happy about what he was doing for Eli, also.

He just hoped they would return. There was a chance that they could decide they didn't want to repent after all.

Cyril couldn't stress himself with worry, though. He was certain they would be back. Eli had been talking to him for nearly a year, so he was confident he was moving beyond his sinful ways and back into the light. Aiden was more of a concern, and also perhaps a test for Eli in the event that he was capable of reverting to his old ways. Cyril didn't know Aiden well, but in the few hours since he had met him, he got a good impression of him. He was confident that Aiden really did want a different life and, in the past, was merely afraid of becoming mortal again so he never sought to cure his vampirism.

And that was a scary prospect. Vampires are immortal, rendering them fearless. This is why they cower when faced with religion, because it makes them weak, reminding them of their former mortality. When Aiden shared his personal fear of mortality, Cyril was reminded yet again why forgiveness was such a necessity. After all, it wasn't Aiden's choice to become a vampire. That being said, he thought that Aiden was wrong in not putting aside his fear before all of this. But he had been young, being only a teenager when he was bitten, and maybe he had just needed to grow up a little.

Even after thinking about all of this, Cyril continued to worry about whether they would return. He decided to put that worry to the side by focusing on his next task: talking to the vampire girls. The office he put them into had heavy drapes on the windows so he could talk to vampires during the day.

Cyril was the owner of the church. Well, technically, the owner was the priest who, until three months ago, lived in the church. As he told Aiden, the other priest was a vampire-turned-priest. Cyril was responsible for his ordainment and he directed him to preside over this church.

Cyril had been keeping an eye on the church for a while because it was located so close to a portal to Hell. He knew that its presence protected nearby residences from attacks from vampires and other monsters. At the time, there were more priests, but the head priest was very old and the others were going to move because they wished to serve the church in Italy, in Rome just outside Vatican City. The older priest was going to sell the church, which Cyril didn't want since it could mean the church would get torn down. The priests never saw Cyril, but he sent his new priest to buy the church, and as a result, he and Cyril were able to call the church their home.

Cyril had never lived on Earth before then. He was born an angel, so he never had been mortal. He had spent a fair amount of his time on Earth, mainly as a vampire hunter, but living here was much different. He felt as though he was able to keep a better eye on things.

Vampires had become his sworn enemy when he was a child. He didn't like any creature from Hell, but vampires made his skin crawl more than anything else. The leader of the vampires was Satan's consort, whose name was Emilia, and her closeness with them is what made him dislike vampires so much.

He made a pact with himself to stop as many vampires as he could. Thus, when the opportunity presented itself to live on the Earth, he took it. He stopped many vampires during his time living in the church, and so when the priest told him he would follow in the footsteps of the other priests before him and move to Italy, he begged him not to. But he stopped when he realized that his friend would stop vampires there, as he was safe there from them. Like Aiden, he felt that being in the church was his only safety, but there, religion was so strong that any vampires and other monsters near Rome were already in a weakened state. He could walk around like Cyril and find vampires.

So the church became closed to the mortals, but not sold, while a new priest was sought after so it could reopen. Cyril was certain that he or his friend would eventually convince a vampire to repent and ordain him as a priest, or if it was a woman, a nun, to oversee the church. It was certainly an interesting church, with its purpose of being a home for an angel to hunt vampires, and its clergy consisting only of people who had once been vampires. It was as though it was a church of vampires, or, a vampire church.

Cyril unlocked his office door and greeted the vampire girls, who he'd try to get to repent, or if not, he'd banish them from the Earth for ten years because they broke the rules. And ten years without human blood was such a punishment for vampires that they typically repented and were cured.

Few cured vampires became church clergy, however. As much as they feared monsters finding them in their mortal state, most accepted this fear as a punishment for their sins. And most were never found. Those that were then either became clergy or moved to Rome. Cyril was very lucky that Aiden wanted to become a priest.

So what would these girls decide? They would be cured, that much Cyril figured. But to his dismay, they loved magic so much that they refused to be cured. However, Cyril knew they had to be tired because it was daytime and they were typically asleep. He thought it was unfair to let them make that decision until after they rested, so he told them to rest and think about it some more and left his office. He'd return after nightfall.
7

Cyril never slept because he was immortal. On Earth, vampires had to sleep during the day because the Sun not only weakened them, but they had circadian rhythms on Earth, rendering them nocturnal though in Hell they didn't have such rhythms. Angels were never bound to circadian rhythms.

It was a long day as Cyril waited for Aiden and Eli to return.

After nightfall, he woke the girls and asked them once more if they were really satisfied with banishment. They replied that they were wary of becoming mortal because they really couldn't imagine life without magic. Cyril suggested they become scientists; while it wasn't anything like magic, it was still wondrous and mystical. At this, they broke into tears as they explained that they were sisters and before they were bitten, they had a shared dream of becoming scientists.

Cyril smiled as he realized he wasn't going to have to banish them after all. He led them out of the office and to the altar to cure them. Just as he finished, Aiden and Eli walked into the church.

"Did all go as planned?" Cyril asked as they approached.

"Yes, Cyril, it went as planned. The clan has been disbanded." Eli answered.

"Great! I'll take you to my office in Heaven and request to get you back your wings after I cure Aiden, as long as he still wishes to be cured." Cyril said, looking to Aiden hopefully.

"I still want to be cured and eventually ordained as a priest." Aiden answered. Cyril clapped his hands together in delight. What a successful day it had been. He praised God and began the process of curing Aiden.

End of Part 1
Part 2

8

In Rome, the priest who used to live in the church with Cyril said his evening prayer at the altar. The priest's name was Joseph. He had gray hair, blue eyes, was in his sixties and still had a fairly athletic build. After he finished praying, he was going to set out and search for vampires, as he did every night. His excuse to the other priests of the church – none of them knew that vampires existed – was that he enjoyed long walks in the evening. Sometimes another priest wanted to accompany him, but he always said he liked to walk alone so he could contemplate.

Tonight, Giorgio, the youngest priest, insisted on walking with him. Giorgio had black hair, gray eyes, was a little stocky but not overweight, and he was in his thirties. As much as Joseph told him that he did not want his company on his walk, Giorgio insisted still. Finally, Joseph realized that Giorgio must have needed to talk with him about something, and it must have been urgent, and something he wanted to say in private.

They began their walk at a leisurely pace. Joseph's eyes darted around at the people outside the church, looking for any indications of vampires. They were easy to spot because they moved much slower than humans since they were weakened by religion. Being human, he could not sense vampires the way he could when he had been one himself, so he had to rely on sight. None were around the church.

Giorgio talked of some matters in the church before he asked Joseph whether he had ever encountered demons. Joseph said he had. Technically, all monsters from Hell were considered demons. Then he asked if he had ever performed an exorcism before, which he affirmed he had.

"Do you think you could perform an exorcism on me?" Giorgio asked. Joseph stopped in his tracks, surprised at the question.

"Why?" He asked, concerned. He was afraid of what Giorgio could have encountered.

"Well, because this morning, I woke up with these bite marks on my neck. Look here." He pulled the collar down on his priest garment and Joseph saw two bite marks from a vampire upon his neck.

"Oh, no. That's from a vampire. An exorcism isn't what you need, you need to be cured." Joseph said.

"A vampire. I thought so – no, I knew so but I couldn't say it. That's why I asked you about demons."

"It's a demon nonetheless. Since you have been infected, you must come back to the church now so I can heal you."

"Is this why you live in the church? To avoid being bitten?" Giorgio asked as they turned back. Giorgio did not live in the church like Joseph did. Instead, he lived in an apartment nearby.

"Not exactly. It is to avoid being bitten, but that is because I used to be a vampire and I do not want to be bitten again. Now that I'm back to being human, I never want to become a vampire again. It locks the soul in the body, barring any entrance to Heaven. But you can get to Hell, you can even live there. That's where I lived for a time, and I never want to go back. Anyway, I'll explain at another time. For now, let's get back to the church as soon as possible so we can save you from this disease."
9

The process of curing vampirism was not simple or fast, however. First, the wound had to be cleansed with holy water. The holy water had to be blessed with a blessing that was only known by those who knew how to cure vampirism.

The next step was for the healer to read aloud Bible verses that referenced vampires, to establish for the person infected that being a vampire was a sin. The venom acted quickly, and it affected the thought process. It was easy to start desiring blood, and start to give in to the other evils of being a vampire. This was especially concerning for Giorgio because it had to have been almost 24 hours since he had been bitten because he was bitten the previous night and it was now evening.

Although he seemed normal, Joseph knew that somewhere in Giorgio's mind, he was beginning to revoke his religion and God. The Bible verses would be extremely important in combating this new mindset.

The first verse was Proverbs 30:14:

There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.

"Teeth should never be as swords or as knives. The needy and the poor shall be prayed for, never preyed upon. They shall be helped, never hurt. Our teeth shall never be fangs to pierce the skin of any innocent person, nor the guilty one. To be a vampire is against the Will of God." Joseph said after reciting the verse. Giorgio was to say 'amen' after each proclamation of Joseph's, and this first one was immediate, and his tone agreeing.

The second verse was Deuteronomy 12:23:

Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

"The blood is the life. We do not eat blood. We never eat blood, this is a sin in God's Eyes. The blood is the sustainer of all humans. To be a vampire is against the Will of God." Giorgio's reply of 'amen' was a little hesitant this time. This was typical of anyone in his position, as the venom was corrupting the mind, and making it think that blood was the sustainer of vampires, too.

The third verse was Revelation 9:6:

And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

"As a vampire, your soul is bound to your body, so you are immortal and can never die. And yet you were a human, and you should be allowed to find salvation and get to Heaven. This can never happen if your soul is bound to your body. To be a vampire is against the Will of God."

"Amen." Giorgio said quickly.

The fourth and final verse was Revelation 17:6:

And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

"There is a master that the vampires answer to, other than the Devil himself. The Devil's consort is this master. This verse exemplifies her capacity for evil, for she drinks the blood of saints. She preys not upon the humans, but the saints, and also the archangels. She cannot enter Heaven, but she can walk the Earth, and if a saint or an archangel is on the Earth, she can track them and attempt to drink their blood. She attempts to corrupt them with her venom. She is God's enemy as much as her lover, the Devil himself, is. To be a vampire, you accept her as your master. To be a vampire is against the Will of God."

"Amen." Giorgio said. But this time, he meant it toward the Devil's consort, who he was suddenly in awe of. He found her amazing, to be able to take the souls of not men, but saints and archangels, and alter them. He knew this was against all that had just been said, but he thought something about this to be profound. He knew that the venom was altering his thought process and that he never would have thought in this way before being bitten, but he did not wish to think in any other way. He wanted to serve her, not the Devil, but her. He revoked God.

"Amen." He repeated, but not in reference to God, instead, in reference to his new god, the woman drunk with the blood of saints and archangels.
10

The last part of the cleansing involved giving the antidote to the infected person. When Giorgio heard that there was an antidote, he said he did not want it. Joseph knew this meant that after all the prayer, Giorgio had not returned to his senses. His vampirism had progressed further than Joseph had hoped.

Without any more discussion, Joseph walked forward and stuck the syringe with the antidote into Giorgio's arm. He'd be better soon, within the hour, in fact. He wouldn't be normal for a few hours still, but he'd at least start coming to his senses soon.

As Joseph predicted, Giorgio seemed more like himself when he returned to him after an hour. Joseph left him alone in that interval of time because there was nothing more to be said. Since the prayers against vampirism did not work, the antidote was the only way to get Giorgio back to himself. Talking to him was pointless until he was willing to listen in the way he normally would, and not from his vampiric perspective.

Giorgio now was very remorseful, and he explained how the prayers actually made him revoke God and pledge himself to the vampire leader. He explained that after Joseph left, he began to feel differently. This was because he had an unnerving sense that he was being watched. It occurred to him that this sense came from the stained glass portraits of the church's patron saint.

This sense made him begin to regret the pledge he made to his new leader. He also began to fear the reprimand he would receive from God. He already felt reprimanded by the saint, so he figured that God would reprimand him as well.

Joseph went through the prayers with Giorgio again. This time, when he said 'amen,' he meant it toward God and shuddered to himself as he thought that only a short time ago, he meant it toward Satan's consort.

It appalled him that after his twenty years as a priest, it took only a few hours for vampirism to undo it all.

Giorgio spent the night in the church, and in the morning, he was completely cured. He thanked Joseph and then asked him to tell him everything he knew about vampirism. Joseph said he would, but later on, when he went out for his walk.

Giorgio went home; the mass he led was in the afternoon, so he went home in the meantime. His cat greeted him at the door to his apartment, and he wondered if the cat had seen the vampire when it had come to bite him. At least no harm had come to the cat.

He wondered briefly if the cat could contract the disease if bitten, but then remembered that human diseases are different than those of animals.

Although he had slept at the church, Giorgio was tired again, so he set his alarm and went to sleep. When he awoke, he found a note on his nightstand.

He took it uneasily, knowing that while he slept, a vampire had gotten into his apartment again. Why was it out during the day, if the Sun burned it? Maybe it had been hiding somewhere in the apartment, out of sunlight. Maybe it was still there.

Suddenly paranoid, he got dressed, put the note in his pocket, and took his cat and went back to the church.

He found Joseph and told him what happened. Joseph agreed that the vampire had to have been in the apartment. His attention turned to the note. Giorgio handed it to him, unable to read it himself because of the stress he felt.

When Joseph unfolded the letter, another paper fell out from it. He picked it up, but looked at the letter first.

It read:

Dear Giorgio,

I see you have had the vampirism cured. There is a task I had in mind for you, and you are the only person capable of completing it. My kind is being hunted, and some of those that hunt us are associated with you. You can help us stop them from hunting us. They have recently become a concern to us because they dismantled one of our largest and most respected clans.

It goes against all you've ever believed in to join our cause. I realize this. However, I promise you the reward of eternal life.

Sincerely,

Emilia

"This is worse than I thought." Joseph said.

"Why do you say that?" Giorgio asked in horror.

"Hold on." Joseph said, turning his attention to the other paper. He recognized this as a spell.

It was a spell to summon vampires, and he thought about the spell that Cyril had told him about. He had sent him an old video from the news about it when he found out that the spell had come from Aiden's clan. This was clearly the same spell.

Putting everything together, Joseph realized that the clan that Aiden came from must somehow be associated closely with Emilia. She wouldn't have been who bit Giorgio because she never bit humans and likely didn't deliver the letter herself, either. Therefore, whoever did was likely from the same clan that Aiden was from. But, now that the clan had been disbanded, how could the spell still summon vampires from the clan? Unless Emilia had reformed the clan.

"I have to make a phone call, wait here." Joseph said.

"Who are you calling?" Giorgio asked.

"An angel. I'll explain more later."

Joseph went to his office and locked the door behind him. He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed Cyril's number.

"Hello Joseph, it is nice to hear from you. I was actually going to call you soon to tell you about Aiden's progress. I'll be able to ordain him in a few months, he's learning very fast."

"That is good to hear. I, unfortunately, am not calling you with good news. In fact, it's very troublesome news."

"Oh no, what is happening?"

"One of the priests at my church was bitten." Joseph recounted the whole story to Cyril, who listened silently. At the end, when Joseph told him about the letter and spell, he gasped and said excitedly:

"Though I agree this is troublesome, this is the first lead anyone has had on Emilia in centuries! I must come there to see the letter. First, I have to tell Aiden and then I will be there."

"You shouldn't leave him there alone. I worry that his clan will try to seek him out."

"I was already thinking about that. No, he cannot be left here alone; I will ask Eli to stay here with him."

"Okay. Another concern I have is that I thought this city was completely safe from vampires. I was worried the moment Giorgio told me he was bitten. That should not happen here."

"It never has happened before. This is the first report of someone being bitten since Christianity came to that region, and of course it's been there for about two thousand years now. Very concerning indeed. But at least we have a lead on Emilia." There was a knock on Joseph's door.

"Hang on a moment, someone is at my door. I need to see who it is."

"Actually, I summoned Eli here, he just arrived, I'm going to explain this to him and come there. So there's no need to put me on hold or call me back."

"Alright, see you soon."

"Bye."

Joseph hung up and went to his door.

"I'll be out in a moment, I'm taking care of an important matter. But who are you?" Joseph asked through the door without opening it.

"My name is Jared, I have come here to speak with you, Joseph." Joseph didn't like the sound of this, he worried this man was a vampire. But sometimes people did come to the church. Still, he couldn't risk the possibility.

"Hold on a minute." Joseph went back to his desk, unlocked a drawer and took out a silver dagger, just in case. He also took out a syringe filled with the antidote. He put both items in his pocket and went back to the door. He took a deep breath and exhaled. He opened the door and ushered the man into his office, surreptitiously locking the door again.

Joseph sat behind his desk and Jared sat across from him. Jared was younger, probably in his late twenties, had black hair, brown eyes, and an athletic build.

"What have you come here to speak with me about?" Joseph asked politely. He did not accuse Jared of anything, he did not know if he was a vampire.

"The other night, I bit one of your priests." Jared said casually.

"So you're who bit him. You work directly for Emilia?" Now that Joseph knew he was a vampire, he was going to try to get him to tell him as much as possible, so he was blunt.

"Yes. The clan I'm from is one of the most powerful vampire clans in Hell and she started working directly with the clan's leaders. High-ranking members of the clan know about this, but don't work directly with her. I've never met her personally. Lower-ranking members know nothing about it." Jared explained.

"You know I cured him, don't you?" Joseph asked. Jared nodded.

"Yes, I know. I delivered Emilia's letter. I have come to tell you that your interference means nothing. You cannot stop us."

"I know you are stronger because Emilia bit a saint or an archangel who has not yet been cured. I know a vampire cannot walk into any church and not be weakened, let alone a church here in Rome. Further, it's impossible for a vampire to bite anyone in this city without gaining strength." Joseph knew there was more to it than just that she bit a saint or an archangel because she had done that many times before and the vampires had never been this strong. But he wasn't going to ask about that yet. He needed to know who she bit first.

"Then you must realize that you have no choice but to concede. Without curing the person she bit, you are as powerless to us as we typically are to you."

"We will find out who she bit, I will make you tell me." Joseph reached for the syringe in his pocket, but there was another knock at his door. He looked at Jared, who shrugged and said he should see who it was.

"I'm the only vampire here, so it must be one of your priest colleagues."

Joseph went to his door, unlocked it and saw that it was Cyril.

"Cyril, that was fast. Come into my office." Joseph said.

"Who is this?" Cyril asked upon seeing Jared. Joseph again locked the door. Once Cyril was in the room, Jared slumped over in his chair a little. The presence of an angel weakened him.

"You know an angel?" Jared asked in surprise. His leaders knew that, but he didn't.

"This is Jared. He is from that clan."

"Interesting. I want to see the letter and the spell." Cyril said. "You may continue with Jared."

"You may sit behind my desk." Joseph said. He watched Jared and put his hand in his pocket, grabbing the syringe. Once Cyril was behind the desk with Jared's attention focused on him, Joseph took the syringe out of his pocket and quickly came up behind Jared. He put the syringe in his arm and released the antidote. Jared squirmed and tried to get away but couldn't.

"I did not agree to be cured. You must know the rule; you cannot cure any of us unless we come to you and ask to be cured." Jared said.

"Joseph knows that, but because of the nature of this situation, that rule is waived. This is not a normal situation. We only comply so far. I find it strange that Joseph knows this but you do not. Then again, I would never trust Emilia to have told me everything. She knows she broke the rules – whatever she's doing, the strength of the vampires has increased more than our rules allow – and she wasn't kind enough to mention that to you." Cyril said.

"I've never met her. Only the leaders of my clan have. I just am a high-ranking member. My clan's leaders probably know this." Jared said.

"Exactly, which is why they sent you to us. They would never risk being cured." Joseph said. "I used to be a vampire, too. I was from a different clan, but I also was, like you, viewed as dispensable. That is why I chose to be cured."

"I will go back. This antidote means nothing to me." Jared said.

"Some cured vampires do that. Ones that were used by their clans the way you were never go back, though. Once the antidote clears the vampirism from your system and you come to your senses, you will not want to go back." Cyril said.

"You're wrong, I'll go back."

"It's useless to talk to him until he's cured." Joseph said. Cyril agreed and suggested that he and Joseph leave his office and go to Giorgio's office instead. Joseph agreed. Cyril locked the same necklace around Jared's neck that he had around Aiden's neck to weaken him more, so that he wouldn't start banging on the door of the office when they left.

On the way to Giorgio's office, Cyril became invisible so that no other priests saw him. Once they got to his office, he became visible once more.

Joseph knocked on the door and Giorgio answered. He was still holding his cat. Cyril looked at it curiously.

"I was afraid of what might happen if I left my cat at my apartment." Giorgio explained. Cyril smiled and nodded, understanding.

"I understand. It just threw me for a moment." Giorgio locked the door behind Cyril and Joseph.

"It is nice to meet you, Giorgio. Joseph told me that you never have met an angel before. I am Cyril and I currently reside on Earth."

"It is my honor to meet you."

Cyril put the letter and spell down on Giorgio's table.

"That is definitely the same spell. I want Aiden to see it, too. I guess I'll go back to my church and take the letter and spell with me. I need to get more information about that clan he was part of. He hasn't wanted to talk much about it, but I need more information now. Maybe I can figure out who Emilia bit if I know more about the clan."

"The vampire that is in my office is from the same clan and he knows who she bit. But I don't think he'll talk until after he is cured." Joseph explained to Giorgio.

"Vampire in your office? And what do you mean you need to find out who Emilia bit?" Giorgio asked, surprised and confused. Joseph quickly explained everything to him.

After the explanation, Cyril said, "I think I should take him to my church and see if Aiden can get him to talk. He may be more likely to tell him since they were members of the same clan. And I have a suspicion that Aiden's task was not what he or I thought it was. I think they thought he could do it, and until now, we thought they gave it to him as a way to force him out of the clan through mockery. But he told me he used to excel at his tasks, that he climbed through the ranks fast. He almost became a high-ranking member and then started doing terribly.

"I think that this task may truly have been redemptive. Aiden said that the clan told him it would be anyway, and maybe they meant it. Emilia needs more saints or angels to be bitten in order to get even more powerful, so evidently she wanted him to be successful. And with that success would have been a promotion to a higher rank and then they probably would have told him about Emilia."

"That would make a lot of sense. If that is what happened, then Jared would probably be willing to talk to Aiden. The clan never would have forced him out if he failed the task if they really wanted to promote him. So that means that Jared probably likes Aiden." Joseph concluded.

"Yes, I would think so." Cyril said. "Okay, you and Giorgio should stay here to keep watch over the church. Before I leave, I will give Giorgio some items to use against vampires, should any more appear. Then, if anything else happens, call me and I will come back immediately. And I will let you know as soon as we find anything else out at my church."
11

When Cyril walked with Jared up to the altar of his church, where Aiden and Eli were, Aiden's eyes widened in shock. He recognized Jared immediately. Jared had always been friendly to him, but he is also who had given him the task of biting an angel, so Aiden's opinion about him had greatly changed.

"Why do you have him?" Aiden asked.

"You know him?" Cyril asked in return.

"Yes. He is from my former clan, and his name is Jared and he is a highly ranked member of the clan but not a leader. He's who I got my tasks from, including that final task." Aiden replied.

"Oh, he gave you the task. Well, that's interesting."

"Former clan? Aiden, you left the clan? But you found an angel, even if he caught you, he would have set you free again and you could have found another one. It takes patience to figure out how to ambush an angel. You had never seen one before, you knew nothing of how they moved, or how they behave. You let him get in your head." Jared said.

"Enough!" Aiden said loudly. "You gave me that task because you knew I would fail! You gave it to me to force me out of the clan! You know that is the truth!" Jared shook his head. Cyril watched all of this unfold excitedly – he was getting some of the answers he needed without even having to ask any questions.

Eli was also still there, near Aiden, seeming perplexed by what was happening. Cyril figured he was confused about where the vampire had come from and why he didn't seem all that weak. Even though the antidote and the necklace weakened him, he was able to stand upright near the altar without much trouble, a feat that should have been very difficult for a vampire.

"No, Aiden, that is not why I gave you that task. You had done so well before and for some reason you lost confidence in yourself and you couldn't finish your tasks as well as you had before. We knew your potential and we thought that you could finish this task."

"What?" Aiden asked in surprise.

"But that's not all." Cyril interjected. "You needed him to complete this task. You entrusted it with someone you thought was capable and someone that was loyal to your clan. The rest of Aiden's friends left your clan in favor of going to other clans, but Aiden stayed."

"So, you and those priests figured it all out when you left me in your office." Jared said.

"Actually, I figured most of it out myself. But the priests agreed."

"Can I sit down? The antidote is making me feel nauseas." Jared asked.

"Antidote? You were cured?" Aiden asked as Cyril helped Jared to the pew closest to the altar.

"Yes, Joseph gave him the antidote."

"He never asked and I never would have agreed even if he had." Jared said matter-of-factly.

"That can't be true, that isn't allowed." Aiden replied. Cyril corrected him and asked Eli to watch Jared so that he could take Aiden into his office to explain what was going on with the vampires. He didn't want Jared to hear their conversation because he needed Aiden to get Jared to tell them who Emilia bit. He knew it was either a saint or an archangel, because those were the only people that Emilia bit. She would actually go years without blood, so she was typically very weak. Imagining her strong was not a good thought.

They needed to find out who she bit so that they could find the person and cure them. Once they did that, the vampires would become much weaker. Of course, there was more to it. She probably had others from the clan bite angels, just like Aiden was supposed to. Clearly, they didn't get so strong from just the one person Emilia bit. Or, she could have bitten more than one person, that was another possibility. Whoever else was bitten also needed to be cured.

When Cyril and Aiden returned, Eli pulled Cyril off to the side and whispered, "I think I know who Emilia bit. You know that Saint Juan Diego presides over the kingdom of Mexico in Heaven."

"Yes, and he brought the Catrina character from Day of the Dead celebrations to life and she presides over a kingdom within the Mexican kingdom as a queen. Many who live in her kingdom live in the form of the skeletons from Day of the Dead celebrations."

"Yes. Well, a few weeks ago, some of the people from that kingdom have gone missing. Catrina has been trying to figure out what is happening, but Saint Juan Diego has not been seen since this started. He released a statement saying he is troubled and will help as soon as he can, but is currently involved with something else and cannot help search for them. I just put it all together."

"So it's likely him. But now we need to find out where he is."

"Maybe Jared knows."

"I told Aiden to talk to Jared to try to get him to say who it is and where to find them, so hopefully Jared will tell him."

"If not, we can request a meeting with Juan Diego."

"Or talk to Catrina and have her request the meeting."

"That's a better plan, he'd be more likely to meet with her."

"Alright, well, let's make sure Jared confirms this before we take any action."
12

Aiden sat next to Jared and started talking to him. Cyril and Eli stayed behind the altar.

"You'll think in a much different way when you are cured, you know. You will not want to be in the clan anymore." Aiden said.

"I know that the change alters your thought process. I feel that already, mildly."

"How long has Emilia been working with the clan?"

"A year. She came to our leaders and said she needed our help. She wanted to make us stronger, unstoppable. She was tired of having her people avoid churches and religious items. She wanted us to be free.

"I never met her, but I wanted to. I still want to. But I feel that fading a bit. I am starting to feel like a terrible person, sitting here in this church. I don't feel I can ever escape God's eyes, in reality. Of course, I never intended on this life."

"No one does. I felt that way, too. Once you're human again-"

"Once I'm mortal again, you mean. I am afraid of feeling that way again, it was my first thought when I felt that needle with the antidote go into my arm. It's starting to settle in that I am powerless against my inevitable return to mortality."

"It doesn't feel bad at all. You said before that I let Cyril get in my head, but the truth is that you and I and all other vampires let the fear of mortality get in our heads." Jared sighed at this.

"I suppose so." He agreed, looking down at his hands. "I see no way out of this. I'm trapped here in this church with angels, becoming mortal, with this cross locked around my neck. And the rules have changed and I have no idea what that really entails, and I don't want to find out. I better just tell you what I know."

"Please do so." Aiden agreed.

"Well, Emilia bit Saint Juan Diego, who is the man who saw the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. He is a vampire now, serving Emilia steadfastly."

Eli stepped closer to them and asked, "Is that why the people in Catrina's kingdom are disappearing?" Jared nodded at this.

"Yes. He bit them and they are new clan members. That's how we got so strong. The more people we get from that kingdom, with the saint on our side, the more powerful we become."

"Where can we find them?" Cyril asked.

"Our clan rebuilt itself immediately after you all destroyed it. It is located in a different place now, of course. A map of its location is on my phone." Jared took his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Eli, who was closer than Cyril.

"Do you think Juan would meet with Catrina?" Cyril asked. Jared shrugged.

"He's trying to avoid that, but he knows he can't avoid her forever. I think he might meet her in a week."

"No, we need him to meet with her now, today." Cyril replied.

"Maybe if she insists on it, he will."

"Alright. Eli, call up Catrina's palace and tell them we need to meet with her because we have information about her missing citizens. And look at that map he gave you on the phone, find the best route for getting there. Jared, you tell Aiden and I everything else you know." Cyril said.

Eli went to Cyril's office to call Catrina's palace. Jared continued.

"There's not much more to tell you. I already said that Emilia wanted to make the clan stronger by transforming more and more of the people in Catrina's kingdom. She wanted to eventually take over the kingdom, move the clan there, and transform everyone from it into vampires, even Catrina herself.

"The problem is that it was estimated to take years because many of those who live there are in their skeleton form most of the time. Catrina herself almost never changes to human form. But, to bite them, they have to be in human form. You can't inject vampire venom into a skeleton.

"Of course, the problem with transforming Catrina at all, and those in her kingdom, is that as vampires, they cannot be in skeleton form at all. Without having blood in their bodies, they cannot be vampires. Therefore, over time, Emilia knew we would be discovered since it would be unusual for them to be in human form. Catrina was going to be one of the last people to be transformed because people would be alerted if she was suddenly in human form all of the time. So the plan always included being discovered, which, though the clan's leaders are devoted to Emilia, they thought was a foolish plan.

"However, she thought that taking over the kingdom would work in our favor at the end of the day. It meant grave punishment for all of us, except the victims of Catrina's kingdom and Saint Juan Diego, but with this punishment also would come the greatest feat that vampires have ever accomplished: transforming a kingdom of people from Heaven into vampires. Although Emilia had bitten saints and even archangels before, they were typically cured before the venom really took much effect. And even when the venom had taken effect, someone found out and cured them very quickly.

"This is not surprising because turning an already immortal human, or an angel that has always been immortal, into a vampire is different from turning a mortal human into a vampire. Mortals swear devotion to Emilia, but they are in reality very much affected by the thought of being immortal. Sometimes this gets in the way of their devotion.

"Someone who was already immortal, on the other hand, has nothing getting in the way of their devotion to Emilia. Because of this, it is easy for them to accidentally show this when they are around others. This is one way that the people Emilia bit were discovered. The other way was that they decide that they do not want to be vampires because they are moral and religious people and do not want to serve Emilia. Over time, any of them would have decided to be cured, it just didn't get that far for all of them. And this is a problem with Juan as well, and I will explain how she is getting around that in a moment.

"Although her transformations of all of these people have led to punishment every time for Emilia, she was not fazed because she felt each saint and archangel she bit was an accomplishment both for her and her people. She didn't mind the punishment because the accomplishments were greater.

"Now, after thousands of years, she has changed her focus. It's not about biting one well-known saint or archangel for the glory of it anymore. Now, she wants more. This time, she wanted the saint to hide away from people until she was certain he would not alert anyone to his transformation, and until she was certain that she got into his head enough so that he did not want to be cured. This is why I said he would probably meet with Catrina in a week. He's being prepared. Remember, this was supposed to take years, and he is generally around a lot of people, so he was going to have to hide his devotion to Emilia and hide it for a very long time. The only effective way to do this is to brainwash him completely."

"This is the worst thing that she has ever done. She's not going to simply get punishment for this, she's going to lose everything this time. We cannot allow vampirism to exist at all if she's going to start doing things like this. Brainwashing is another violation of the rules, and if she cannot follow our rules, she cannot be allowed to have power in any way. This is going to be the end of vampirism." Cyril said. No one replied as that conclusion settled in.
13

"What about the Devil? What is his role in this?" Cyril asked.

"He doesn't know anything about it. Emilia doesn't tell him about her plans. She wants the strategizing to be her own, for the glory but also for the punishment. She doesn't want him to be punished for her plan."

"But this time, everyone will be punished. Even you, Jared, because-"

"I know, because I was involved even though I didn't come up with any of it. But vampirism is more than needing blood and wanting immortality, it is a devotion as well. Sure, some of us get obsessed with the mortality aspect, but we also serve Emilia. She is our saint. And if your saint asks you to do something, you're going to want to do it, to serve them." Jared said. "And I am not trying to get out of it, I accept my punishment, but you know that even the holiest people have had their minds taken over by vampirism at least for a short time. It's even harder for someone to overcome that if they were not very religious to begin with."

Cyril nodded at this and said, "That is true, and that is why we are so forgiving. Two former vampires now have decided to become ordained as priests by me, Joseph first and now Aiden. There is redemption and it is true that the blame does really get put on Emilia in the end. Back to the situation at hand: why is it that you were told to bite Giorgio?"

"The clan was concerned that we would be found out before getting very far. I was told to go to Rome and bite one of Joseph's priests, but I was not supposed to specifically bite Giorgio, I just randomly picked one of the priests. This was supposed to serve as a distraction for Joseph, who I was told is a priest who hunts vampires and knew of our clan, but I was not told about you Cyril, or about Aiden. Obviously, they wanted to distract you both.

"Giorgio was not supposed to be cured, he was supposed to join our clan. I was told the plan was that Joseph was going to search for him, but because our clan was disbanded and no one knew we had reformed, he'd have no idea where to go to find us. I thought the plan was to prevent vampire hunters that knew of the clan from finding us indefinitely. And in the meantime, we would become stronger and stronger. So that is why I bit Giorgio.

"Once he was healed, I was told to show Joseph that we were stronger and tell him not to mess with us. We wanted him to know we were stronger so that he still had a reason to come after us, and we would evade him since he didn't know where to look for us. I thought we were going to do something similar for all vampire hunters that knew of us. That's how I understood it."

"Okay, thank you for all of the information. I really appreciate it."

"I am getting tired. I feel the antidote, and I think I need to rest. There is nothing more to tell you anyway." Jared said.

"Alright. Aiden, take Jared to our living quarters so he can rest. I am going to see what progress Eli has made and then call Joseph to update him." Cyril said.

With that, Aiden helped Jared up and took him to their living quarters. His dislike for Jared for giving him the task faded. But the whole idea of that task shook him up because he now knew that the task had been developed for him by Emilia herself. The fact that he would have felt very honored by that just a few months beforehand make him feel sick. He was very happy that this was going to be the end of vampirism.

When Cyril walked into his office, Eli was still on the phone.

"Es muy, muy importante. Por favor, hoy necesitamos una reunión con Catrina. ¿No? Pero es sobre sus personas desaparecidas." What Eli said translated to: 'Is it very, very important. Please, we need a meeting with Catrina today. No? But it is about your missing people." Eli was Puerto Rican and spoke Spanish fluently, but Cyril, who was Greek, spoke fluent Spanish, too.

That seemed to be getting nowhere, but Cyril was hopeful that Eli would convince them of the importance of the meeting. Yet, as he listened some more, he realized that the reason why they said it was impossible was because many people were calling with potential leads on where the missing people were, and most of them seemed legitimate. They were receiving requests for meetings with Catrina every five minutes. They had to check through all of the leads first and then schedule meetings as they saw fit.

Finally, seeing nothing more that he could do, Eli hung up and told Cyril everything he had found out.

"I have identified the best possible way to get to the clan. We are not going to get any help from Catrina or her kingdom for several days because they are getting flooded with leads. They can't just prioritize ours. And that's true, that's the only way you can handle a situation like this. But they said we're welcome to take action ourselves.

"Then we'll just have to do that." Cyril said.

"Are there enough of us? I thought that it was best to get to Juan separately through him meeting with Catrina. It would be easier than trying to get to him by going to the clan's hideout. Especially when we'd be dealing with vampires who will not be weakened by our presence or our religious items. They're not more powerful than us, but, they still could easily escape because there are so few of us and many more of them." Eli said.

"I know, but since we really don't have time to wait until Catrina is ready to meet with us – or worse yet, until Juan is ready to meet with Catrina – our best option is to inject Jared with vampiric venom to re-infect him with vampirism and have him request to meet privately with Juan. Then he can cure Juan." Cyril replied. Eli weighed this, unsure of whether this was really the best option. After all, Jared could always turn on them.

"What if Jared tells them that he told us everything?" Eli asked.

"We'll have to make sure he won't turn on us. Emilia has a way to brainwash Juan so that he stays devoted to her for years, so we'll just have to do the same thing with Jared. We're not playing by our rules anymore. I know a spell that would work, and the effect is immediate. It's more powerful magic than anything that Emilia could use.

"This is really the only way I can foresee. They will never suspect that we could have gotten Jared on our side. He could walk in there without being attacked. I am confident that he can do this."

"I guess I see no better option, either." Eli agreed after a minute.

Cyril walked to his desk and lifted his hand in front of one of the drawers to unlock it with magic. It unlocked and he opened the drawer. He took out a vial of vampiric venom that he always kept handy, in the event of a situation such as this, and a syringe.
14

Jared laughed when Cyril told him the plan.

"This is so ridiculous. First you want me to be human, I finally come to terms with it, and now you two come in here and tell me you want me to be a vampire!" He laughed again. "I completely understand, but I really want you to be sure there is no other way. I feel content the way I am now, and I'd really rather that you don't turn me back into a vampire. But if you have to... then I have no other choice."

"We can't think of a better way." Cyril said.

"Wait." Aiden said. "You can use magic, why can't you just create a spell to make it appear as though he's still a vampire?"

"I'm afraid we don't have time for that. I don't have any spells like that. If one exists, it could take me a week to learn it. If there isn't a spell like that, it'll take even longer to create one." Cyril replied.

"Did you tell the other two priests yet?" Aiden asked. Cyril shook his head.

"I haven't had a chance to. I thought it would be better to do this first, so that it counteracts the antidote."

"Call them first. See if they have any ideas." Aiden said.

"It's going to be harder for him to accept this if we wait." Eli said.

"You're right." Jared said and extended his arm. "Just do it now, I'll be fine." Since Jared agreed to it, Aiden didn't argue further. Cyril injected Jared with the venom.

"Now just rest for a few hours. I'm going to go tell Joseph what happened." Cyril said.

As Cyril walked back to his office, he thought about how Joseph might react. He didn't want him to think his effort to cure Jared had been in vain. It really wasn't in vain at all. Cyril didn't think that Jared would have shared what he knew if Joseph had not given him the antidote.

He shut the door behind him when he got to his office. Then he sat at his desk, picked up the phone and called Joseph.

Nothing new had happened at Joseph's church since Cyril had left. Joseph was a little disappointed that they had to inject Jared with the venom, but he understood and agreed with it.

Cyril left his office and went to find Eli. They needed to create a plan for Jared. Getting to Juan was the easy part, what happened after was trickier. The vampires would be weakened immediately, so the clan would know that Juan had been cured. Cyril, Eli, Aiden, Joseph, and Giorgio needed to be ready to go into the clan's hideout. They would escort Juan and the members of Catrina's kingdom, who they would also have to heal, back to the kingdom.

As for the clan and Emilia, Cyril was going to have to contact an archangel and tell them what was going on so that they could ban vampirism. Only an archangel had the power to actually outlaw something in Heaven or in Hell. They also made laws for both places.

Cyril felt relieved that vampirism was at its end. After so many years of fighting against the vampires, he was happy that they finally were being eradicated. But it also felt strange because he didn't know what he would do next. He had spent his whole life wishing to end vampirism. It had been his job his entire adult life. What would he do next?

The only reason he lived on Earth was because it made it easier to track vampires. Would he want to continue to live on Earth after they were no longer a threat?

There were other threats from Hell, too. Maybe he could start hunting another monster. He didn't know much about other monsters, just a rudimentary understanding, nothing more. Maybe Eli knew more about other monsters.

He had the church and he had Aiden and Joseph. Now he even had Giorgio and most likely Jared, unless he decided to return to normal life. And he had Eli also, so, it seemed like they should continue to hunt monsters, even though vampires would no longer exist.

'Well, one thing at a time,' Cyril thought. First they needed to cure Saint Juan Diego.
15

Jared walked into the clan's hideout. He was a little anxious but didn't let that show.

Even if Cyril hadn't casted the spell on him to counteract his vampiric way of thinking, he didn't think he would have deviated from the plan. He did not like being back by his clan-mates. He also knew that vampirism was truly at its end, and so he would have known that he had no choice but to follow through with Cyril and Eli's plan.

Jared went to the office of the clan leader that gave him tasks. This is who had given him the tasks involving Joseph.

"I'm back." Jared said when he walked into the office.

"How'd it go?" The clan leader, Jeremiah, asked. He was in his forties, had black hair, brown eyes, and was thin. He also had a beard. He had a Nigerian accent.

"They promised to come after us. He tried to convince me to let him cure me, but I refused. He said I'd regret it, and I walked out of his office." Jared said.

"That's it? That took you awhile."

"Obviously, I didn't come back right away. I was thinking about something and I want to talk to Juan – alone. I know that's a big request, but I have some things I would like to discuss."

Jeremiah smiled at this. "You want a promotion." He said. Jared didn't follow.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know that I can talk to Juan. If you were promoted to a leader, you could as well."

"But, as a leader, I could talk to him, but only as a group with all the other leaders, and I specifically said that I wish to speak with him privately."

"There's so much you don't know about being a clan leader. We can talk to him privately. He's actually a leader of our clan, too. Now, it's different with Emilia, she only talks to us as a group and of course is not a member of the clan since she is the ruler of all vampires."

"Wow, I guess there is a lot I don't know about being a leader in this clan."

"And there's so much more to find out. So what do say? Do you accept a promotion?" Jeremiah asked. Jared blinked in disbelief. This had to have meant that they were always planning on promoting him to a leader. Jared was so happy, he felt that he would have deviated from Cyril's plan had he not casted the spell on him.

He had worked so hard for so long for this. He always wanted to be a leader and now he had it. But at the same time, he didn't. He was going to have to give it up and that felt impossible. But then he realized that it wasn't really giving it up because there would be no vampires to speak of after all was said and done. And so there would be no clan to be a leader of.

His mind flashed to the day that Aiden had returned with Eli. He was so sure that he would be promoted after that success, and that Aiden would take over the position he held. And then Eli revealed that he had never been bitten, and he dismantled the clan, dashing all of Jared's dreams.

A week after that, Jeremiah contacted Jared – who was looking for another clan to join – and said the clan had reformed. As sacrilegious as it was, it felt like a miracle. He rejoined the clan immediately. Now he was actually being asked if he would accept a promotion, after everything he had been through.

He blamed the only person he could for this outrageous situation: Emilia. As he thought about it, he was glad he would have a hand in bringing about her defeat.

"What do you mean, do I accept it? Of course I want to be promoted! This is such an honor, thank you, Jeremiah!" Jared said.

"Glad to hear you accept it! I've been wanting to promote you for awhile. We'll hold the celebration for your promotion and give you your office and then you can meet with Juan all you want! Congratulations!" Jeremiah said.

"Thank you!" Jared said. "When will the celebration be?"

"Tonight. And you'll get your office in the morning. So you can meet with Juan tomorrow." Jeremiah replied. Jared couldn't complain. They had anticipated that it could take many days and a lot of begging before he'd be able to meet with Juan, so to be able to meet with him so soon was great.

Jared left Jeremiah's office and went to his room. Once there, he called Cyril and told him what was happening. He was surprised that he'd be able to meet with Juan so quickly.

Cyril also had news. Eli had heard from Catrina's kingdom, and they were about to go there to tell her what they knew. Most of the other leads that had been called in before theirs were dismissed quickly, so that is how they got to theirs so fast.

Cyril, Eli, and Aiden were all going to go to Catrina's kingdom. Cyril was going to cast a spell on the church to prevent any destruction to come to it. This was another thing that he could not do under normal circumstances, because again it broke the rules. Jared began to wonder just how many rules there were, but he didn't ask because he knew that Cyril likely didn't have time to explain at that moment.

Although they were meeting with Catrina, they thought that the plan with Jared was still the best option. There would be no hassle in getting Juan to meet with Jared, unlike what would happen if Catrina tried to meet with Juan. Their meeting with Catrina would be a chance to explain to her what was happening. They also anticipated help from her in curing her people once Jared was successful in curing Juan.

It was possible that this did somewhat change their plans, though, because they didn't know how Catrina would want to proceed in helping. Because of this, Cyril asked Jared to call him after his promotion celebration, in case they needed him to wait a day before meeting with Juan.

Jared cautioned that the clan would likely have a new task for him once he was promoted, and for this reason, it was probably better to cure Juan sooner rather than later. Cyril thanked him for the warning and said he would tell Catrina. He told Jared that she was a good strategist, and was quick on her feet, so he was confident that she would come up with a plan quickly.

Jared wished them luck and they hung up. He was relieved that they would not have to cure the people from Catrina's kingdom on their own because the thought of that was terrifying. Yes, the clan would be weakened tremendously after the curing of Saint Juan Diego, but it was still a big clan, and they were going to be extremely angry. Even the members of Catrina's kingdom in the clan would be angry because of the influence of vampirism on their minds. To only have seven people – Cyril, Eli, Aiden, Joseph, Giorgio, Juan, and himself – to try to cure all of them would have been difficult. He was much happier with the thought of soldiers from Catrina's army, and maybe even Catrina herself, helping them.

His mind turned to the celebration later that night. It was the afternoon, so he had several hours before the celebration. It was going to begin at six o'clock. He started looking around his closet for something to wear.

End of Part 2
Part 3

16

Cyril transported Aiden with him to the entrance of Catrina's kingdom. It was the first time an angel had transported Aiden anywhere, and it took him by surprise because it was instantaneous. One moment he was in the church, the next, he was standing outside a large wrought iron gate that barred entrance into the kingdom. The gate was attached to a limestone wall that surrounded the kingdom. It looked medieval.

It was no wonder to Aiden why there were such sturdy protective barriers surrounding the kingdom. He knew that this particular kingdom was the most attacked kingdom in Heaven. It was always under attack by monsters. Vampires were always a threat, but so were many other monsters.

There were many subdivisions of Hell. Although Catrina's kingdom was in Heaven, monsters found their way there because there was a portal to Earth that was open during the Day of the Dead Festival. Monsters could get through the portal, so the kingdom had to be reinforced. Even so, many monsters found their way into the kingdom, and mostly they were not caught right away. As a result, there was always a chance of being ambushed by a monster in Catrina's kingdom.

That being said, Catrina took good care of her people and had her soldiers patrol the kingdom. Typically, incidents involving monsters did not go unnoticed or get out of hand. The kingdom was large and perfection was not possible, but the people who lived there were very happy.

It was also for this reason that there were so many leads about the missing residents. There were not only monster attacks, but monster sightings, and if there's one thing that monsters were best at, it was evasion. Most of the leads from the kingdom's residents had to do with these sightings, and that led either to dead ends or sending soldiers to search certain areas for these monsters. But that was a waiting game, so there was nothing more that could be done in the meantime except investigate other leads.

Eli arrived at the gate. They had to go to a kiosk and talk to a soldier at it for entrance into the kingdom. There were multiple kiosks, but there were long lines at each one.

"The people I talked to on the phone told me it might take us awhile to pass through the gate. There are many people from other places who think they have leads and they are coming here to report their leads in person in an attempt to get past the wait of being called or emailed back. The kingdom is annoyed with it because they wish everyone would just wait their turn.

"That would be very annoying. They're overwhelmed as it is and I know all these people are just trying to help, but this is just ridiculous." Cyril said, shaking his head in dismay at the lines. "Well, I guess we better choose a line."

There were no short lines. They tried to find the shortest of them, but it was hard to tell. They settled on one that seemed like it was moving faster.

Most of the people waiting in the lines either were not from Catrina's kingdom or were in their human form instead of their skeleton form. Some people looked like ordinary people you would see on Earth, but others were different beings or were dressed in elaborate clothes.

The skeleton beings from Catrina's kingdom had bleach white skeletons, not an off white color. They had black, blue, or orange markings painted on their faces, with dots and swirly lines typical of sugar skull designs. They also had eyes and they had vibrant irises, many were bright violet or red, some were yellow or bright green.

There were some guards standing outside of the gate that had more elaborate designs painted on their faces. The lines curved more ornately and the designs used multiple colors instead of just one.

Some of the other beings were angels, others came from places like the kingdom of Egypt and were half-animal beings like what can be seen in hieroglyphs such as dogs or hawks. Some people from other kingdoms had vibrant skin colors. And people wore clothes from every culture or genre – literary, musical, or otherwise – on Earth that you could think of. And also more that weren't known on Earth.

"Did you ever come here when you were a vampire, Aiden?" Cyril asked.

"No, I had heard about it and some of my clan-mates had come here but they were found quickly. The Day of the Dead celebration hadn't even ended before they were caught. No one in my clan could figure out how anyone could evade Catrina's guards. You'd have to either be very lucky or very strategic." Aiden replied.

"It also takes a lot of patience." Eli added. "I would know."

"You came here before?" Aiden asked, turning to Eli. The line edged forward. Some people that were turned away at the kiosk walked near their line, complaining about the fact that they were told to call in their lead and wait to hear back.

"Yes, I came here shortly after I had become a fallen angel. I managed to avoid getting caught for several months. It took a lot of patience. But, eventually, I made a mistake and before being able to do what I had set out to do, I was caught."

"What were you trying to do?" Cyril asked.

"Well, I was going to kidnap a dancer. Catrina's castle has dance performances every night, and I wanted to kidnap a salsa dancer who performed regularly. I wanted an assistant.

"I tracked her for all those months, figuring out her schedule and places she liked to go. I wanted to take her from the most secluded place that she visited – a forest near one of the volcanoes here in the kingdom. I thought that I could maneuver around the trees and avoid being seen by the archers that walk around the forests in search of monsters. However, I did not get that far because I was caught while tracking her one day while she was out shopping. I prided myself too much in my ability to stay concealed in a busy area and stopped being as strategic. Of course, now that I am an angel again, I am happy that I was caught."

"What did you want an assistant for?" Aiden asked.

"Many fallen angels have assistants because fallen angels do not form clans. Sometimes we team up in a small group of two to four people, but aside from that, we do everything alone. The assistants help us make plans, potions, and gather information for us about other monsters. I did not have an assistant before that, and I actually did not seek to have one at all after that. When I was trying to get the dancer, I thought it could be helpful to have one, but, after being caught, I thought that it was more trouble than it was worth.

"After all, even if I had been successful in kidnapping the dancer, people from the kingdom would have looked for her. If I took a human instead, there was a chance that an angel or someone else from another kingdom in Heaven would come after me. That wasn't something that I wanted to deal with, so I decided I didn't want an assistant after all."

"It makes little sense to serve Hell. I never have understood why people do. It's so easy to get punished. It happens all the time, and yet people just continue to want to serve Hell. It's so much better not to be punished all the time, don't you think?" Cyril asked. Both Aiden and Eli agreed.

They didn't talk for a few minutes. The line kept moving. More people passed by that were angry about being turned away.

"Many people are being turned away." Cyril observed.

The man directly in front of us turned around and said, "Yes, because they did not call first. Many people who think they have leads are just coming directly here. Others call first and are told to wait for a call back but decide they should try to come in person. We're not even here for that, we have a second home here." There was a woman with him.

"That would be annoying to have to wait in this line when you're not even here for the same purpose as most of the other people. They should really have a separate line for people who are here just for a visit, or to return home."

"That would be great if they had that. So you're here because you think you have a lead about the missing

members of the kingdom?"

"Yes, but we have confirmation that we can enter the kingdom. We called in our lead first and the kingdom called us back and said we can come and explain more in person."

"At least you have confirmation you can enter. This is really ridiculous. I know people are frantic and are just trying to help, but this is not the way to handle things. And the kingdom is overwhelmed, so there's not much else they can do, unfortunately."

"What kingdom are you from?" Eli asked.

"We are from the Greek kingdom."

"That's where I'm from also." Eli said.

"Neither of us are from Greece," the woman said, "we just found it fascinating that the Greek gods were brought into existence."

"We didn't know each other yet, but we both watched as this kingdom was built. We love folklore and mythology and it was great to see this kingdom get built. We even got married here."

"That's nice. This is a beautiful kingdom. I've been here a few times, and enjoyed every visit." Cyril said.

The line they were in was definitely the fastest. Before too much longer, the couple in front of them were at the kiosk. Cyril, Aiden, and Eli were next in line.

It didn't take long for the couple to get past the kiosk. Before going through the gate, they wished them luck with their lead. They never asked for information about it, figuring it was confidential.

Cyril, Aiden, and Eli walked up to the guard behind the kiosk and Cyril gave him their names. About a minute later, he cleared them for entrance. They went through the gate, but getting through the gate was just the first step because they had to walk all the way to the castle.

The castle was about an hour and a half's walk from the gate. Normally, there were horses that could be ridden through the kingdom, but for now, the only people who could use the horses were the soldiers because there were so many people in the kingdom. Eli had been told this over the phone, and the guard at the kiosk also let them know this.

Once they got past the gate, it was clear why the kingdom had no choice but to make people walk. It would have been impossible to navigate through all of the people while on a horse, unless you were a very experienced horseback rider like the soldiers were.

"It is amazing how many people there are here." Cyril said. There had to have been about twenty thousand people on the plaza just beyond the gate. There were about as many people entering the gate as there were exiting it. The other people were dispersed around the plaza, all taking different paths away from it.

"There are always a lot of people here, but there are about ten times more people here now than the last time I was here, when I tried to get that assistant." Eli commented.

"I've never seen this many people here, either." Cyril said. "We need to make our way to the leftmost path."

"This is going to take longer than an hour and a half. It's going to take at least twenty minutes to get through this crowd to the path." Aiden said.

"It's a shame that they have prohibited flying for now, too. Eli or I could have carried you and we could have gotten past the crowd. You'd be too heavy to carry the whole way, so we still would have had to have walked, but it would have eliminated the extra time it will take to get through the crowd."

"Do you think we're going to set up a plan with Catrina and get to the clan's hideout before Jared will be able to meet with Juan?" Aiden asked. If they couldn't do that, then Jared and Juan would have to face the clan almost by themselves. Joseph and Giorgio could still get there, but it would still be much better to have reinforcements.

"We've got all night. And who knows when Juan will be available, he may not meet with Jared until later on in the day tomorrow. But the worst case scenario is just that we'd have to tell Jared to wait on the meeting. Even though he could be given a task in the meantime, he can just say he needs to think about how to go about completing it before getting started. He could act like he's doing that tomorrow, should they give him a task, and then meet with Juan the next day." Cyril said. Aiden was always surprised about how calm Cyril stayed. Eli stayed calm, too, so he guessed it was just an angelic trait. Or a philosophy. Maybe they were taught to stay calm. He'd have to ask about that sometime else, since now wasn't the time or place for questions. Now, they needed to get through the crowd and onto the path to the kingdom.
17

Aiden, Cyril, and Eli walked for about an hour before needing to stop and rest. There was a coffee shop they found along the path, so they stopped inside. There were a lot of people there, but they managed to find a place to sit.

They rested and drank their coffee then set out on their way again. They were still about forty minutes from the kingdom.

About ten minutes after leaving the coffee shop, Eli noticed something come out up ahead from some bushes along the path. He pointed it out to Cyril and Aiden. It was getting dark, so they couldn't tell what it was, but it was moving toward a group of people further up the path. Although they didn't know what it was, they knew it was some sort of monster because it had horns on its head.

"Aiden, you and I should get on either side of it. Eli, come up from behind it and tackle it. We'll tackle it from both sides so we can all pin it down and send it back to Hell."

Everyone agreed to Cyril's plan. As they crept up to the monster, they all realized it was a minotaur but no one said it aloud because they were closer and within hearing range.

Minotaurs were strong, but it would be no match for the two angels, even if they didn't have Aiden's help. Aiden didn't realize this; his clan always avoided minotaurs because of their strength, so he got closer to Eli and grabbed his arm to try to pull him backwards so they could talk out of the monster's earshot. Eli got the message so he shook his head and gave him the okay symbol with his hand to reassure him. Aiden nodded, understanding, and he resumed his position.

It cried out when they tackled it to the ground. The people it was targeting stopped in their tracks and turned around warily. They breathed a sigh of relief once they saw the monster had cried because it was on the ground.

"Let go of me!" The monster bellowed. He tried to knock them off of him but they held him fast.

"You're going back where you came from!" Eli yelled.

"No! I can't go back there, I was banished." The minotaur replied.

"Your manipulations will not work. Even if you were banished from one part of Hell, you weren't banished from all of it. We have no sympathy for monsters unless they wish to repent, but you were about to attack those people." Eli said.

The minotaur sighed and said, "I guess I can't argue with this, then." He admitted his guilt and then they sent him back to Hell.

The people the minotaur was going to attack thanked them and they all started back toward the castle again.

"Minotaurs are very fascinating, maybe once vampirism is banned, we can work as a team still and protect people on Earth from them." Cyril suggested.

"You're already trying to figure out what you're going to do with yourself once you can't hunt vampires anymore!" Eli said with a laugh. "I know it's been your entire life, I guess I'd wonder what I'd do, too, if I were you."

"I thought about it almost immediately after Jared told us what was happening." Cyril confessed. "I was thinking since I have Joseph and Aiden, and now Giorgio, and you're willing to help me anytime, then we may as well continue to hunt monsters. There are all kinds that prey upon the people of the Earth. And now that we've encountered that minotaur, I'm thinking I wouldn't mind hunting them. Not many of them repent, and that irks me. We don't know too much about them, as they answer to Hades and he tends to be very secretive about his underworld. Maybe we can collect information about what will make them repent. I'm sure, over time, we could get at least a few of them to repent."

"What even happens to them when they repent? Do they become human?" Aiden asked. He knew nothing about minotaurs, just that they were very strong.

"No, they remain minotaurs. Many of them go to the kingdom of Greece, and a lot of them become shepherds. Being half-bull, they prefer to live on farms. It is an interesting dynamic: in Hell, they are very brutal beings always looking for conflict, but in Heaven, they live very peacefully and tend to their farmlands and animals.

"Since they are not plagued with disease like vampires, they must go though another process to train their mind away from their service to Hades. Once they have committed to repenting, they are sent to the Labyrinth, which is located in the kingdom of Greece, and they are to get to the center of the maze.

"The mythical story of the Minotaur from Ancient Greece on Earth tells of the Minotaur living at the center of the Labyrinth, so this myth was used to construct a way of redemption for the minotaurs that pledged themselves to Hades. Getting to the center of the maze is very frustrating, and it takes a lot of patience. Only those that are really wanting to be redeemed will make it through the maze without giving up because they know that eventually, they will get to the center and they do not let frustration get in their way of this." Cyril explained.

"That is very fascinating." Aiden replied thoughtfully. He liked the idea of having them get through the maze.

"Yes, and I think that searching for minotaurs and trying to get them to repent is what I want to do next." Cyril said. Aiden was okay doing that. Eli said he would help whenever Cyril needed him.

The castle was finally in sight as they rounded a corner. It was majestic and very colorful. It was made from red bricks, with vibrant cyan blue bricks around the windows. There was no glass in the windows, they were just outlined with the bricks. The top tiers of the castle that reached toward the sky were made of limestone that was painted yellow. Large terra-cotta pots with marigolds growing in them lined the castle's exterior walls. Marigolds are a symbolic flower for Day of the Dead, so this flower choice was important to Catrina and the kingdom. A wrought iron fence surrounded the castle, and there was a gate and more kiosks with guards. Of course there were long lines at all of them.

"What a lovely castle." Aiden said. He had never seen it before, not even in pictures.

"It is gorgeous." Cyril agreed, and he and Eli had seen it in person before. He motioned to the lines and said, "I guess we'd better get over there."
18

As Cyril, Eli, and Aiden waited in line to get into Catrina's castle, the celebration for Jared's promotion was just beginning. It took place in the clan's dining hall, and most of the clan was there, with the exception of any members who were out on tasks.

Everyone clapped as Jared walked into the dining hall. He bowed and thanked them all. As he took his seat, he felt kind of bad. After all, the clan had been his family for the past seven years.

Like Aiden, Jared was in high school when he became a vampire. Jared, however, did not summon a vampire to him, unlike Aiden and his friends with the spell. Jared was a fairly good student and had plans for college when he was bitten. He was in his senior year of high school, but he was planning on taking a couple years off before going to college to save up some money. He worked after school at a pet store. He planned to work there full-time after high school.

The other reason why he wanted time off was because he was caught between two majors. He really liked his job at the pet store, and he thought that business was what he wanted to study because he wanted to open a pet store of his own.

On the other hand, he thought that a career in medical science of some sort may be a better fit for him. However, he did not want to be a doctor or a nurse, but he knew there were more careers in medical science than those two, so he wanted to take some time to research that. He was leaning toward business, though.

One night, as he was leaving work – his shift ended at 9 o'clock, which was also when the store closed – he saw a mysterious woman near his car. He thought she may have been trying to steal his car, but then she walked away. He went to the car and as he was getting into the driver's seat, the vampire sunk her teeth into his neck, and that was the end of his hope for any earthly career.

She was part of this same clan and her name was Stella. She was around the same age as Jared, had blond hair that she always wore in a ponytail or pigtails to keep it out of her eyes, brown eyes, and she always wore violet eyeshadow, red lipstick, and coral blush. Jared adjusted to life as a vampire rather easily because of Stella, and they even dated for awhile. Then they dated off and on, but weren't dating currently. She was still part of the clan, and was there for the celebration. It was after she congratulated him that he found out that she, too, was being promoted – she was going to take over his position and he was to give her tasks.

Jared felt numb when he learned this. He felt so bad, but there wasn't anything he could do.

Stella was actually born as a vampire.

She never had a desire to be cured. Jared had contemplated curing himself once, and he asked her if she would consider curing herself as well, and this was what led to their first breakup. She was very loyal to vampirism.

Someone unfamiliar with the rules for vampire families would think she did not want to be cured because she was raised with vampiric ways. However, vampires – along with all other monsters – had to introduce their children to Heavenly values, and make sure that they did not feel and would never be reprimanded if they wanted to live a different life than the one they were born into. Therefore, though no one wants to have to leave their family, if being a monster wasn't what they wanted, they had the choice not to. And it was not unfair for them to have to leave their families because every time they took someone from the Earth, they took that person from their family.

Jared wished he could tell Stella about what was going to happen. He knew that being cured was going to be a terrible shock to her system and he wished he could prepare her for that, but, there wasn't anything he could do. But in a sense, he felt that she deserved the shock. After all, she did transform him into a vampire, and many others.

The celebration ended after three hours. Stella wanted to talk, but Jared said he was tired after his last task and the celebration, so he said they'd talk another time. Jared went back to his room and called Cyril. He was surprised to hear that they had only just gotten into the castle. Cyril explained what happened and said he would call back after they met with Catrina.
19

After all the waiting, it was interesting and a relief that they did not have to wait at all to meet with Catrina. Once they got into the palace, a guard led them directly to her office.

Catrina welcomed them warmly when they got there.

Catrina was in her skeleton form. The markings on her face were more elaborate even than those of her soldiers. On her cheekbones, she had orange marigolds with black stems, and some of the petals were coming off them, falling toward her jawbones. She had blue dots and black swirly lines all over. She wore a dark blue dress with a lighter blue shawl over it. She also wore a small golden circlet on her head. Her eyes were bright violet.

Cyril and Eli could understand and speak Spanish, but Aiden couldn't so they spoke in English.

"Thank you so much for coming, gracias. I know the kingdom is in disarray right now and I apologize for the long walk to my palace.

"So, you reported that you have confirmation that Saint Juan Diego was bitten by Emilia, and that he is taking people from my kingdom, transforming them into vampires, and taking them to a clan that Emilia is working closely with. I admit, when I first saw this report, I thought it was unlikely, but Juan has been avoiding me lately and that is very strange, so I believe your information must be correct. Since you say that the vampires are stronger, a saint must have been bitten; it all makes a lot of sense to me and it's the only lead I've had so far that makes this much sense. Since you know the clan's location, I decided it will be best to send some soldiers of mine to this clan to look for my people.

"I want to know everything about how you found out about this and tell me all that you know. Then we'll make an exact plan for how we'll handle this.

"It also seems to me that Emilia has crossed too many lines this time, and that vampirism might in fact become outlawed due to this. I am nearly certain that will be the outcome, and I am worried about this because my kingdom is always under attack by monsters. As I'm sure you know, they get through during the Day of the Dead festival, and many manage to escape our notice and lurk in the kingdom. As much as I want to see the end of vampirism, I'm concerned that the lack of their presence will mean that other types of monsters will be more of a threat. Many monsters avoid our festival because they want to avoid vampires, and since vampires have historically been our greatest threat, they have kept these monsters away. I'm not sure what to do yet, and I would welcome any suggestions you have."

Cyril replied, "We are also certain this is the end of vampirism. Before I begin to answer your questions and give you suggestions – I also offer my help at any time you may need it – I want to report to you that we encountered a minotaur on our way here, while we were walking. It was about half an hour before we got to your castle's gate. We tackled it and sent it back to Hell, but it was trying to get to some people that were walking ahead of us."

"We don't get minotaurs that often, but from time to time, they turn up. Thanks for letting me know." Then Cyril and Eli gave a few suggestions that Catrina was grateful for.

Cyril then told her everything they knew. Catrina listened intently. Aiden and Eli told their parts of the story. They told her everything, including how Aiden came to working with Cyril.

Once they were finished, Catrina said, "I think your initial plan with you three and the two priests waiting outside of the clan's hideout, then going in once Juan is cured and the clan is weakened is a great plan. I will send a fair amount of soldiers with you. Ideally, I'd like to outnumber them, so I want you to call Jared and ask him how many people are at the hideout now. He should have a good estimate from the celebration."

Cyril did as Catrina asked and told Jared about what happened since they last talked. Jared was happy with the plan and was also happy he'd be able to meet with Juan the next day. The sooner, the better.

Once Cyril was off the phone, Catrina told them to wait in the palace's lobby while she gathered some soldiers to send with them. She said it wouldn't take too long and it didn't – she approached them in the lobby about an hour later.

"Alright, everyone is ready." She said. "I'm going to come with you, too. I have left someone else in charge while I'm gone. Typically I wouldn't leave the kingdom during such a crisis, but we have a protocol and I think I am more needed with you."

They made their way back to the kingdom's gate. There was no other way out of the kingdom because the portal to Earth for the festival needed to be at the gate to monitor who went through it as best as possible, to try to prevent monsters from getting in. In the past, they had more than one, and it only led to more monsters getting in, so it was removed.

This time, they were on horseback and rode through the wilderness to get back to the gate. This was another reason why they weren't letting anyone ride horses through the kingdom during the crisis. Typically, they could monitor people and prevent them from riding in the wilderness where they might encounter monsters, but with so many people, this was impossible.

On their way to the gate, they encountered several monsters, and unfortunately some of them evaded them, and they had no time to chase after them. But they were able to send some of them away. They caught a few vampires, and after they got out of the wilderness and the gate was in sight, Cyril mused about those likely being the last vampires he would encounter, outside of the ones in the clan.

It had only taken them twenty minutes to get to the gate. There were still thousands of people in the plaza and it took them another ten minutes to get through them. Once outside of the kingdom, they noticed that the lines were longer than they were before, despite it being later in the night. Eli commented about this and Catrina said that the lines were growing day by day as more people found out about what was going on in her kingdom. Strange things happened in Heaven and on Earth all the time due to monsters, and thus many people had theories when they heard about a crisis like this.

They would have to go back to Earth and go to the portal to Hell closest to where the clan's hideout was located. Once they were at the portal, they would turn invisible so as not to alert the clan to their presence. Under normal circumstances, they couldn't be invisible for the purposes of ambushing monsters, but it didn't matter now.
20

Jeremiah led Jared to his new office. He let him know that the first task for Stella was sitting on his desk, and then Jared would be able to create all future tasks for her based on the clan's needs.

"I set up that meeting you wanted, by the way." Jeremiah said. "It's at 11."

"Thank you!" Jared replied.

"Stella will be here at 10:15. I'll leave now so that you can start reviewing that task for her." It was 9:40.

Jared shut the door and called Cyril to tell him when the meeting was. Cyril let him know that they were outside of the hideout, and told him they were ready to go in once Juan was cured.

Jared picked up the papers detailing the task that he was to give Stella. She was supposed to go to Catrina's kingdom and get more people for the clan. However, her task was to be more complicated than that, because she was to target priests specifically. She was supposed to set out on this task immediately. That was not good. It was best to have as many people in the hideout as possible. Also, he had decided that he wanted her to pay for what she did to him, so he wanted her to be there to see the clan fall.

A thought crept through his mind: she could come with him to his meeting with Juan. The problem was that he needed to be alone with Juan in order to successfully cure him. He decided that he could ask her to stay in the hideout until after the meeting because he could say that he already had a second task in mind for her that could be done simultaneously. However, because he had a meeting, he couldn't tell her what he had in mind until after the meeting, otherwise he would be late. That way she would stay in the hideout.

Stella came at 10:15, just as Jeremiah said she would. She congratulated Jared and then he gave her the task. He also told her about the second task and the meeting, and she agreed to meet him at his office again at noon. Once she left, it was time for him to go to Saint Juan Diego's office.

He knocked on the door once he got to his office. After a few seconds, he answered and welcomed Jared into the office, closing the door after he stepped in.

End of Part 3
Epilogue

Jared was successful in giving the cure to Saint Juan Diego, and everyone else charged into the hideout once Jared let them know of his success.

It only took about ten minutes to give the cure to everyone in the hideout. The vampires couldn't really fight because they were in a much weaker state and were no match for Catrina, her soldiers or the angels, or even Aiden and Jared or the priests. Every vampire that Jared gave the cure to was shocked that he had turned on them.

Afterwards, everyone stayed in the clan's hideout to wait for others who had been out on tasks to come back to the clan. Mainly, they were waiting for members of Catrina's kingdom. Most had been there, but some were out.

Jared, too, was given the cure once more. Cyril left after awhile to go back to Heaven and go to an archangel to report all that had happened. As everyone thought, the archangel put an end to vampirism immediately. He also took away Emilia's right to any type of power for a long time.

For the next few months, Cyril took some time off to finish training Aiden as a priest and he ordained him. Jared decided that he did not want to become a priest, and instead would go to school for the business degree he had been considering before he had become a vampire. However, he stayed in the same general area that Cyril and Aiden lived in and was still going to help track monsters once Cyril got back to doing that. He planned to open a pet store in the area once he finished school.

Joseph and Giorgio also wanted to help. Joseph was using the time to train Giorgio how to hunt monsters. He also taught him about several different monsters and showed him how to get into portals to Hell. He also showed him maps with locations of these portals.

After Cyril ordained Aiden as a priest, he wanted to get back to looking for monsters. During his time off, he decided that he definitely wanted to focus on minotaurs. He started researching areas where they had been spotted in the most. There were several areas close by that had a lot of minotaur activity.

Joseph found out that there were many minotaur sightings in and around Rome, which fascinated him. He wouldn't have expected so many.

Eli also looked into minotaurs. He searched for disturbances in Heaven related to them. There were some, but not too many.

They all shared what they found with each other.

From this, they made preparations for hunting minotaurs, and got new equipment. As Cyril rearranged his office drawers, replacing the vampire tools with the minotaur ones, he thought about all his years of catching vampires and healing, or when they refused that, banishing them. He thought about how his persistence led to the end of vampirism, and he hoped he could do at least half as well with the minotaurs. His job with them would be to get them to decide to live in Heaven and give up their brutal lives in Hell. The end to that was to get all minotaurs to live in Heaven and abolish their other way of living.

He couldn't wait to get started, not with the intent to bring about that end himself, but perhaps to help someone else as persistent as he had been with the vampires, and to help either directly or indirectly.

Cyril put the vampire items into a box. He closed up the box and took it to the storage room in the church. Then he went back to his office to start getting ready for his first time out in search of minotaurs.

The End.
About the Author

Catherine has been writing since she was young. She has been an amateur writer for fifteen years and is starting to write professionally. She has spent years trying to create a unique writing style and works very painstakingly to bring you the best writing she can produce. Aside from writing, she enjoys science and is pursuing a career in science with the hope of a side career in professional writing. Her works of fiction are mainly supernatural horror and fantasy, but there is also a science fiction aspect to much of her writing. She particularly likes to write about vampires. In addition, she writes poetry from time to time and enjoys philosophy.
More Titles by This Author:

The Circus in the Woods

More to Come....
