The tunnel was filled with life and energy, and it was making sleep impossible. He was no longer fighting the impulse to kill, but the fragrance coming into the cell was too charged to allow for relaxation. Radu stayed absolutely still. He knew that if he moved or stood up, he would be heading down to deal with the monks.

“He isn’t a monster,” Sasha tried to explain to the brothers who were gathered outside of the cell. Radu could hear them yelling all night long. The monks had returned in bigger numbers and with the intent to remove Radu from the monastery.

“I am a monster,” Radu said to himself as he listened to the monks fighting in the tunnel. “I’m just not the monster that they think I am.”

“He lives in the monastery,” Sasha said, “I’ve seen his room now. It was made just for him, and he claims that our whole order was designed to care for him, and his master. I believe that he is telling the truth. I know that sounds weird, but I think we have to help him.”

“My grandmother told me how to deal with vampires,” Radu didn’t recognize the voice, but he liked the spirit of the monk. Sasha was managing to keep them all at bay. It was amazing to see the loyalty that Radu had managed to build in the young man in only a few moments of interaction. It took Radu back to his days as a prince of Wallachia.

He was always able to inspire the men, and get them to rally around a cause. There wasn’t even a Wallachia before Radu Negru united the peoples of the area under one banner. It was nice to know that he still had this power. He had lost his dark, flowing mane of hair, and his good looks, but Radu Negru was still able to sway people.

“You are a natural leader,” Nevasta had always said. “You were meant to be in charge of people. You care, and you inspire people. I feel horrible that I pulled you away from all of that. I am forcing you to hide yourself away, and it isn’t right.”

“I couldn’t stay there forever,” he mumbled forlornly. At the time, Radu was amused by his wife’s worries.. He loved that she was so concerned for him but he had to leave and they both knew it. “I didn’t look like a fifty-year-old, and I was never going to look like a sixty or seventy-year-old. I had to disappear.”

“It’s just a shame is all,” Nevasta said as she folded herself into Radu’s arms. He kissed the back of her neck and they took a moment to enjoy the closeness. Radu could still feel her in his arms as he lay there on the ledge. He could still see her face whenever he closed his eyes.

Nevasta turned to him and it was no longer her face. It was the girl from a recurring dream earlier in the week. She had many of the same features, but she was a bit younger, and she had a modern haircut, more like the one that Kat wore. She looked so much like Nevasta, but he could tell that it wasn’t her. Who was this woman, and why did he keep seeing her face?

“We have to protect the creature,” Sasha’s words cut through the dream that had taken over Radu’s mind.

“There are vampires flowing into town from all over Romania,” an older monk growled. “We have to stop them before it’s too late. They will start to wreak havoc all over the town. You are very young, and you have never seen a town laid to waste by vampires.”

“The creature talked of a Brother Vladimir,” Sasha said when the old man had finished his rant. “Do you remember him? Do you know what he did for the creature?” Radu could smell the confusion and the fear that set in when the name was mentioned. It was like the words had unlocked some place in the monks’ brains.

“I don’t know it, but I know it is one of the most sacred duties of our order,” the old man said. “Follow me.” Radu listened as the monks walked on through the halls of the monastery. He knew where they were going. Radu had taken the monks to the tomb of Unul Vechy when he first returned to the monastery.

The tomb not only contained an empty stone box that represented the last resting place of the angel who slayed the dragon. It also contained the rules for caring for the guardian of the sword. The monks would come out of that room and know that they had a sacred duty to protect Radu.

The only problem that still vexed Radu was that they had stopped for some reason. If the old man knew about the tomb, how did he not know about Radu, and the cell hidden deep in the tunnels below the monastery? Why had the monks forgotten about him?

Sasha came back through the tunnels and stopped at the stone door of the cell. “I just wanted you to know that we are going to be looking for a sacrifice,” he said behind the boulder. Radu heard Sasha turn quickly and head out of the tunnel. Radu could hear the excitement in the young man’s voice. It had to be the most exciting thing that had happened in the young monk’s life so far. He sounded positively giddy about the idea of kidnapping a young girl.

“Try your best to find a magical girl,” Radu called out. He knew that the sound carried well through the tunnels. He could feel the monastery empty out. There were no more living beings within the stone walls. It was a nice feeling to no longer have to struggle against the urge to kill. However, the empty walls allowed his sensory powers to extend.

Radu could feel the influx of mystical power in the area. The vampires were coming for him. Radu didn’t yet know why Solomon had chosen this moment to attack. Radu assumed that his enemy had something to do with the order forgetting to feed the guardian of the sword. Now Solomon knew Radu would be too weak to fight him off.

Radu tried to let rest take hold of his body. The healing power of rigor mortis was the only thing that could help him until the monks found a sacrifice. He closed his eyes and tried to relax his body. His body just wouldn’t return to the stone-cold state it had been in for the last 20 years. Radu got off the ledge; he would need to try again later.

Radu walked through the tunnel and up into the cathedral. He shuffled more than walked. It was a very sad thing to experience. When he made the trip down into the cell for the first time, Radu was walking like a young man. His strong confident stride forced the monks to mix their walking and running just to keep up.

In the tomb of his master, Radu looked around at the markings and the symbols that filled the room. Everything was how it had been 200 years ago. There was more dust, and there was a crack running through the picture of Balaur, but other than that it was still the same place.

Radu took a deep breath and let the air fill his lungs. He didn’t breathe air anymore, but he had to take in air to smell it. Radu could smell a familiar fragrance in the air. He knew that the two went hand in hand. Helga had used a spell to block the knowledge of Radu from the minds of the monks. They had no doubt tortured and killed Vladimir to find the tomb.

The three of them had been in the tomb together 18 years ago, and then the room had been shut until the monks had gone in there that night. Sasha and the old monk were the first ones to go back into the tomb. That’s why the scent of Solomon and Helga was so fresh. It had been almost completely undisturbed.

“I was in hibernation and I didn’t even wake to save you, my old friend,” Radu made his apologies to his fallen comrade. He knew that Brother Vladimir had taken his duty very seriously. Solomon and Helga had likely tortured the poor monk. “You lived a good, honest life, and your reward was a horrible death at their hands.”

The sadness was taking its hold, and Radu shuffled back to the monastery and sat in the front pew. He couldn’t make it any further at the moment. His old body was struggling under its own weight. Radu hadn’t been there for the order. They had fulfilled their duty and he had let them down.

“Here’s the old man.” The voice wasn’t familiar, but Radu knew that it also wasn’t human. He had been taken by surprise, so the person on the end of that voice didn’t have a heartbeat. “Our boss needs a word with you.”

“Is that so.” Radu prepared himself as the vampires moved in closer. “Do you really know why your boss sent you in here?” The vampires froze in their tracks. They didn’t like the tone, and they definitely didn’t like the question. Radu stood up and turned to face his attackers, his eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists.

“He wants us to bring you in,” the man didn’t sound as cocky as he had when he first made his presence known. “You need to come quietly so no one gets hurt.”

“He knows that you can’t bring me in.” Radu chuckled deeply as he glared menacingly at the two vampires coming toward him. He could sense they were very young. They didn’t possess any of the strengths that came with age and duration on this mortal plane. But that was not his fault. That was a mistake on Solomon’s part. “Solomon is trying to use you to tire me out. He knows that you will die here.”

“That’s enough out of you,” the vampire snarled. “Solomon has starved you out, and now it is time for you to come with us.”

“You leave and I will let you,” Radu snapped. “You stay and I will kill you. The choice is yours, but I need you to make your decision right now. Your presence is offending me. This is a holy place.”

“How do you lie here with all this junk around you all the time?” the young vampire scoffed, sneering at the wall hangings and other artifacts. “These places give me the creeps. I’ve never liked churches.”

“This isn’t a church,” Radu said as he looked around at the beautiful sculptures and the handcrafted ornamentation that decorated every pillar and doorway. “It’s a small distinction, but this is a monastery. I feel sorry for you that you never developed an appreciation of art and beauty. It makes what I’m about to do to you even more sad. I wish that I had time to open your eyes and let you see the glory of the world around you.”

“Listen,” the vampire snarled as he got to the front of the cathedral. They had come up on either side of the long stone pew. “You need to just stop this nonsense. You’re run down, and we aren’t allowed to kill you, but we don’t need to take all of you to Solomon.”

“I am sorry,” Radu shook his head as he spread his arms out wide and slapped them together loudly. The vampires were lifted off their feet and smacked together right in front of Radu. They couldn’t separate themselves as Radu held his hands together. “You had your chance, and I feel like your ignorance absolves me of any wrongdoing.”

Radu let the men down. They fell to the ground and then looked at each other. They both got up and charged for the pew, but Radu was gone. They turned to see him holding a wooden pole. It was a large candle snuffer used to reach the candles that were kept high above the altar.

The pole slid easily through both vampires and they sunk to the ground. The vampire who did all the talking wasn’t dead. The pole had missed his heart. He was in a ridiculous amount of pain, and he snapped his arm and half of his chest off as he got free of the pole. Radu walked slowly up to the panicking vampire.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“I thought that much was clear,” Radu said in a kind, gentle voice. “I have rules about dealing with Solomon and his goons. I gave you the opportunity to leave and you chose not to. I would say this is a good lesson, but like so many great lessons, by the time you learned it, it was too late. I wish that there was a way that I could’ve shown you the results of your actions without having to kill you.”

“You don’t have to kill me,” the vampire begged in a desperate voice. “I will leave right now. I can do it, watch.” The one-armed goon started to run out of the monastery. Radu watched him for a while. He felt good allowing the young vampire to feel like he was doing well. As he approached the door, Radu could feel the vampire’s joy. He thought he was going to make it.

The young vampire didn’t even realize that the wooden doors were closing until they decapitated him and crushed his heart in between the oak planks. The doors had moved so quickly that death had taken him completely off guard.

Radu felt tired, he had used too much energy fighting the goons. He knew that it was all a part of Solomon’s plan, but there was no way Radu was letting himself be taken in. His powers were not what they used to be, but they were coming back. Radu knew that he could make a full recovery. He just didn’t know if he would have time to do it.

In his cell, Radu lay on the shelf and hoped once again that sleep would take over his body. He needed to heal and recharge. He hoped that the walk and the fight would make it easier to get back into hibernation for a bit.

He was worried about missing another attack, but he knew the monks would be there soon with a sacrifice. They would wake him. He would feed, and he would be one step closer to fighting Solomon and getting his revenge.