Her Billionaire, Her Wolf(44)

“‘The tomb of the man who saved me,’ said Brother Janos and I remember backing up a step, not expecting that anyone, living or dead, was inside that heavy stone.

“‘I was running wild with a band of mendiant boys in Paris. Most of them were Romanian, like me, and we panhandled all day before heading back to the wagons just outside the city limits. The bosses waited on us and for those who brought back the most there was rum and even a little meat. For the others, stale bread and beatings.

“‘This man had an eye on us for days until, finally, when we were hard at begging for a sou or two, he waded in and broke us apart. I was the unlucky one,’ the old man chuckled, then, ‘Or, so I thought. He seized me by the scruff of the neck and growled into my ear, “I can’t do for the lot of you, so one’ll have to do for the rest.”

“‘He hauled me away from there and, if I recall rightly, he knocked me around, like I did you, until I settled enough to pay him mind.’

“Brother Janos crossed himself then as he looked down at that tomb. And, that was surprising. I had never seen him do it before and in all the time I spent with him after I never saw him do it again.

“‘The life I almost led. It would have been a mean existence, Clement. A dark, empty thing. But for him.

“‘At his side over the years, he taught me the same as I teach you now and one day, when I decide you’re ready, you’ll take up his sword.’

“The old man leaned forward and swiped a finger through the dust and what I had taken for part of the sculpted stone revealed itself in a shining glimmer of bright metal. He hissed, then laughed as he held up that finger with blood pattering down.

“Later, we discovered he had cut himself to the bone...the old fool.

“‘Clement, that blade is a holy thing. It has been in this monastery’s possession for longer than anyone can remember. Blessed countless times, it is incorruptible. And, now, I and a very few others have decided it has languished long enough in this forgotten pit. You are being forged as this weapon was once forged and together you and it shall wreak God’s vengeance among the abominations that crawl upon the earth.

“‘I have argued long and hard for your cause. I cannot believe it is mere chance that you have come among us. You who were spurned by the werewolves themselves.’

“His voice shook with emotion as he looked at me and saw the glories of his past when he had destroyed many a monster in his youth. I don’t deny that it filled me with pride that day until, later, he knocked it back out of me, pounding me down with a practice sword like he never had before.

“But I understood why. He had decided he didn’t need to hold back any longer and he was right. It wasn’t that day, nor the next, but eventually his blows were turned by my growing skill. And when that happened often enough that was when he decided I would kill my first vampire.

“It wasn’t long before we were in a rickety old car and spent what felt like weeks on the road. And, there, deep in the badlands of Romania, Brother Janos led me to a nest of blood drinkers that damn near saw both of us killed.

“I loved that old man. Without ever saying it, neither of us ever did, we both knew he had become my father and I his son. For him and his memory, I have reason enough for the cause that guides my hand and this sword.

“Except that ungodly creatures have themselves lent their weight to my motivation.

“They destroyed my childhood, took away my parents, and, in the end, killed my mother without her ever being able to say a single word to me.

“Brother Janos Karel made me swear to him on his death bed that I would never sully my own soul in patricide. He told me that it would be a terrible sin that would overshadow the great work of my life to come and so I swore to it. Fortunately, a few years later, Nash Abraxis removed such temptations himself when he died and I came into a substantial trust fund he had set aside. Apparently, it was destined for the monastery, but upon his death, the order returned the funds to me.

“Ironically, thanks to the man who forced upon me the hardest lessons of my life and gave me a reason to hunt down abomination, I am free in my task with no lack for finances to wage my war wherever I will.

“And, thanks to you, I narrowly avoided fratricide. You see, I have been following you and without fail, monsters surround you. Braze, as a wolf, would have been just one more of many creatures that I have sent to the depths of hell.”



“But, you can't mean that you would have hurt your own brother, Clement?” Sara said after a moment.

“Can't I?” replied Clement.



“In the year before he died, Brother Janos took me to a cemetery outside the monastery's grounds. It was a pitiful place, unkempt and uncared for. As if destined only for those poor souls who had no other place to rest. As if, they too, had been abandoned.