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Father Edmond yawned slightly and looked up to see what had awoken him so abruptly.

"Why is it I always find you here asleep" said a familiar voice in not exactly the kindest of tones.

Edmond looked up into the unhappy face of the Vatican's librarian Sister Clarice.

"Oh hello sister I was just.." Edmond said his voice shaking slightly.
"You were just what, asleep in my library....again" Sister Clarice said in that universally familiar tone that all librarians adopted. It was the tone you were used to hearing coming from old ladies who were particularly good at wielding rulers. It was strange to hear it come from such a young and lovely nun but it still had its affect.

"I, um...oh would you look at the time, I was supposed to be somewhere else an hour ago" Edmond said as he backed away from that glare.
"I'll um, just be off then" he said as he reached the nearest row of books that led to an exit and bolted down them.

He emerged into the cool night air and stopped to catch his breath. He looked up through his glasses to see a nearly full moon partly hidden behind the clouds. He closed his eyes only to open them a few seconds later with a smile on his face.

"Its going to rain" he said out loud to no one in particular.

Father Edmond had always loved the rain. So many myths surrounded rain and the running water it produced. But with all the myths there was he really only found one truth in it, that rain truly washes away everything....some things just take longer then others. He began to walk swiftly through the gardens of the Vatican. The rain was his special pleasure he allowed himself and he preferred to be out in the surrounding city of Rome. He liked to wonder through the city on foggy or rainy nights. Even in bad weather the city was always alive, lanterns were hung in windows and people could be heard celebrating the end of fall. The rain started to come down, at first just a sprinkle but Edmond could tell that it would soon turn into what he considered true rain. The rain that you could still see to the end of the block but no further, the rain that lightly landed on you and slowly collected all the dirt and grim and washed it away. He was nearing the outskirts of Rome by this point when a young women, a waitress by the look of her now damp clothes, comes running around a corner only to smash into Edmond and fall to the ground.

"Excuse me miss...are you okay? Can you stand?" he asks the young women as he stoops down to help her up.

"Now now young lady calm down" Edmond says peering down the dark alley the young women had come from. "Who is after you" he asks as the sprinkle turns to rain.

As Father Edmond asks two men come running out of the alley, Father Edmond steps in front of the young women.

"There she is" the taller of the two men says in a menacing tone.
"Excuse me sir but I must ask why you are chasing this young girl" Father Edmond says, his voice shaking slightly.
"Thats none of your business, get out of the way" the shorter man says as he lunges at Father Edmond and the girl.

Father Edmond grabs the young women and easily steps out of the way of the shorter man.

"I am Father Edmond of the Vatican and attacking me or this girl will get you into trouble you do not want" Father Edmond says with a slight tinge of fear, fear that the young lady hopes her perusers didn't sense.

The taller man grunts as the shorter one circles "The Vatican, hmmm that puts a damper on or fun" he says to the shorter man.
"Or does it" the shorter replies in almost a growl to the taller.
"Your right, i have always wanted to tear a holy man apart" the taller answers back to the shorter.

Father Edmond leans his head down to the young women that had run into him. "Just stay close, we will be fine." Before the young women has time to protest Father Edmond looks up at the circling pair and smiles.

"Werewolves, I could smell you coming...filthy creatures" he says to the pair. The two stop circling him and the girl and look at him with a look of surprise on their faces. Father Edmond pulls his pistol from his jacket and points it at the taller one.
"You have confessed to the intent of the murder of a young women and a man of the cloth. I have been charged with the destruction of creatures such as yourself. The only thing your good for now is testing my new pistol" Father Edmond states with authority as he pulls the trigger.

The taller werewolf is to stunned at this turn of events to get out of the way as the bullet rips through his body. He screams as the revolver clicks to the next cartridge. The shorter man lunges at the priests back only to see the muzzle of the pistol pointed at his falling body. With a bang the shorter man falls to the ground, the bullet embedded within his shoulder blade.

"Silver!?" crys the taller man.
"Who the hell uses silver bullets" he shouts as the wound burns in his chest just centimeters from his heart.
"Anyone who hunts those that would terrorize the innocent" Father Edmond replies calmly.
"Any last words before I send you to hell?" Father Edmond asks the taller one as he steps closer to stands over him.

The taller man shifts into his full werewolf form and swings at Father Edmond's legs. Father Edmond calmly jumps backward.

"I see, still have some fight left in you then" Father Edmond says as his pale red eyes begin to glow behind his glasses.
"Well then, this should be fun" Father Edmond says as the rain starts to come down harder.

The shorter man is trying to shift but the silver bullet lodged in his shoulder blade is preventing him from changing. Father Edmond turns his head to the shorter man that is trying to get away. Edmond moves his arms quickly taking aim at the shorter mans legs and firing one shot into the mans left leg and a second shot into the mans right leg, causing him to fall down. As Edmond fires the two shots into the shorter mans legs the werewolf in front of Edmond lunges at him but is caught mid air by Edmond, his free hand clutching the werewolf's throat holding him in the air. The werewolf claws at Edmond's hand and arms but Edmond does not move. He slowly squeezes his hand as he brings his pistol around to the werewolves chest and fires a silver bullet straight through the beasts heart. The werewolf writhes in pain and then goes limb. Edmond throws the dead werewolf to the side and approaches the shorter man.

"Please, please don't kill me. For the love of god please don't kill me" the shorter man sobs as he curls into a ball on the ground.

Father Edmond looks down upon the pitiful creature, the urge to kill it and wipe its existence from this world slowly rising in him. He holds the pistol to the mans chest but before he can pull the trigger he catches a glimpse of the young women standing there, fear in her eyes. The need to kill this man subsided as he stood up. Father Edmond opens the back of the revolver and removes the sixth and final shot.

"You are lucky I was not given orders to hunt you" Father Edmond says.
"This silver bullet is meant for your heart werewolf."
"I shall keep it for now but shall I find that you left here only to kill again I will hunt you down and end your miserable existence with it." Father Edmond says holding the silver bullet.

Father Edmond pockets the bullet and reloads his pistol as he turns and walks away from the stunned werewolf. He returns the pistol to its holster hidden underneath his jacket as he walks to the frightened young women, his eyes having returned to the pale red they were moments ago.

"We had best get out of the rain miss" Father Edmond says with a smile.
"I'll walk you home, the streets are filled with dangerous people these days." He says the word people in a strange way as he offers his hand to the young women.
"How silly of me, my name is Father Edmond and I am a priest for the Vatican" he says still holding his hand out to the girl, blood dripping from his other arm.

Father Edmond looks down at his left arm.

"Oh this is nothing really, but if you insist."
"Your an awfully long way from Sovrano inn miss, did those men chase you all the way from there?" Father Edmond asks as he walks beside the young women back towards the center of the city.

"Your a very brave young lady, protecting your cat from those thugs" Father Edmond says with a smile.
'It's nice to see people protecting those who can't protect themselves" he says walking along beside her.

"Thank you miss" Father Edmond says as he sits down. The seat was more comfortable then he expected it to be and he smiled as he looked around the Inn. He had been here when one of the previous owners was still alive and it had changed little since then. So that cat must be her..... Father Edmond thinks as he looks at the young women. He looked down at his left arm. His sleeve was ripped from the werewolf's claws but he knew that the skin underneath had already healed. Well he had a way to fix that quick before the young lady tried to bandage the wounds he didn't have.

"Excuse me miss, could I trouble you for something to drink?" Father Edmond asks while he removes the glove from his right hand.
"Sure, what would you like? I'm afraid all we have at this hour is water and beer I'm afraid...but if you'd like a cup of tea, I can brew some it will just take a moment." the young lady replies.
"Tea would be wonderful miss" Father Edmond replies with a smile.
"Okay *smiles* I'll only be a minute." *walks behind the bar and into the kitchen*
Once she is out of sight the fingers on Father Edmond's right hand elongate into long fingers ending in razor sharp claws. He takes his right hand and rakes it across his left arm, shredding the sleeve and his flesh and causing blood to run down his arm and start to drip onto the floor. He licks the blood off his right hand as it reverts to normal and puts his glove back on as the young ladies cat Coco returns with a first aid kit in its mouth and a couple of towels across its back.

*As Coco walks back in the room, he sniffs the air*

"Meoow"

*Coco walks up to his masters rescuer and sets the first aid kit down, the shakes the towels off his back. At that time, Lavian walks back into the room with the tea tray.*

"Sorry about the delay. Now let's see about treating that arm, shall we?"

*Lavian sets the tea tray down as Coco hops up on the counter to watch. She pulls up a chair, sits down, then grabs the first aid kit off the ground and puts it on her lap. She then grabs the towels and drapes one of the towels over her hair while handing the second towel to the priest.*

"Sorry bout the delay, here ya go."

*after resting her head on a pillow she looks up blankly*

"Why is it that after so long I'm starting to remember things...? None of them a comforting and I hat them... maybe it was better off that I had forgoten them..."

*she turns to the side and a tear flows down to her verry plain bed*

"Nymph, plz report to Rasand's office...now..."

"Grate... just what i needed... more of his mind games..."