The Red Guard: Vampire Hunters of Vatican City

Chapter Thirty-Four - To the Heart

The Pope took one last strike at the Red Guard he was fighting and succeeded in staking him in the heart. Chloe felt sick as she watched her comrade turn to dust. The Pope turned to look for the voice with some surprise. Everyone seemed to stutter in their violence as the voice continued on.

"It looks like your rule is coming to a rather quick end, Marcellus," the voice continued, permeating the air.

"Is that you, Ethan?" the Pope asked. "I wonder how you managed to get inside these walls?" The Pope looked at Chloe with a mixture of respect and hate. "If you wanted to have rich blood, Ethan, you could have just moved to a country where I have no power."

"And miss the culture of Rome? I don't think so, Marcellus. You know I've never been one to give up easily."

"And you decide now is the time?" growled the Pope.

 "I've waited patiently. It's been hundreds of years."

"Since the darkest of dark ages, yes," replied the Pope turning his head to look at Chloe. "Is that what you want? A return to the dark ages?" he asked.

"You've been leading a different kind of dark age, Your Holiness," she whispered hoarsely. "Keeping people in poverty for your own benefit. Stopping birth control, risking lives, taking lives, taking tithes from the poorest of the poor. You are deplorable."

"This," he shouted at her, "is nothing compared to what it could be! You are opening the door to Ethan, of all people? Do you have any idea what he stands for?"

I have no idea what Ethan really stands for ,thought Chloe with panic that she quickly tamped down. She trusted him because Derek trusted him. She glanced down to the ground.

"That's what I thought," scoffed the Pope. "He stands for anarchy. Chaos. Is that what you want?" the Pope demanded with his glowing red eyes.

"We want more equal footing for everyone," said Felicity. "We want to not feel sick every time the news shows refugees landing on Italian shores."

"Is that all?" smiled the Pope, "Why didn't you just say so?"

"Well, there was the minor issue of you killing those who questioned you," Quinn chirped from where he stood over a pile of ashes.

"Oh, that?" smiled the Pope, "Only a time or two, really. And did anyone really like Jessica anyways?"

The Red Guards shifted their feet uncomfortably.

"Regardless," said Ethan. They all looked to his form as he stood just beyond the goat's blood pool. He looked to the pulpit and leaped calmly from one pew to the next as he spoke. He isn't in any danger from the blood, thought Chloe, he's just performing for everyone. He was almost dancing from one pew top to the next. "Your Guard is correct. Your time to rule is over. We need to be able to access more nutritious blood. The stuff you're providing is terrible."

The Pope rolled his blood red eyes in exasperation. Chloe noticed that the human cardinals had started to move towards each other and stood in a group at the edge of the altar. They watched everything with wide-eyed wonder. They truly had no idea, she thought. She noticed that their future leader watched everything without wonder. His face was simply grim and he seemed to be taking it all in calmly.

"Fine, what is it you all want, then?" the Pope tried to reason.

"Oh, the time for bargaining has passed. Maybe you should have tried that with Jessica instead of killing her," said Felicity. Chloe looked at her with admiration. She would make a great new leader of the Red Guard.

The rest of the vampires seemed to stroll in behind Ethan now. Chloe thought they all looked rather smug as they stepped foot into the Sistine Chapel. She couldn't help thinking it just seemed wrong to have a bunch of vampires in such a sacred place.