It was around 6 and a half in the morning when sir Adam woke me up. It must have been the best sleep I had until then. All of the running, fighting and fear surely did a number on my energy. The sun wasn't out yet, but the sky started to brighten up slightly.
We ate a reheated stew from the previous day and packed our bags. I didn't have much, just the things in the box, which weren't that heavy or many in number, so I carried whatever sir Adam passed to me. In the bag that he gave me were my belongings, dried meat and some vegetables as food, a bottle of wine in case we wouldn't find a clean source of water on the road and a small box with about 50 bullets. In sir Adam's bag were much the same but more bullets and two sets of clothes just in case.
When we left, he downed on himself a large coat with built-in holsters for his revolvers, of which now he had two instead of one, I didn't even see him take the second one out of somewhere, and a large hat that shadowed his entire head. It was cold outside, but not that cold that a coat like that would have been needed and the sun wasn't anywhere bright enough to need a hat. His skin was pretty pale, maybe he had that albinism condition that I heard Henry talk about, such people were having a hard time with any amount of sun if what he said was true, or he was pale exactly because of such clothing.
It took a while before we reached a road. It was a dirt and mostly unused one as it seemed, but sir Adam looked like he knew the way, figures, he still needed to get his vegetables and wine from somewhere and he didn't seem to have a farm or the tools needed to make wine.
After maybe an hour or two of walking we reached a gravel road, quickly finding a wagon that would pick us up for a small sum of money. I think it was around 10 or 20 ron, from those that my mother left.
If we could keep this pace, we might reach our destination before sundown, or that's what sir Adam told me, but I still didn't know where we were and where we were going.
…
We were in front of what looked like an inn, an old but well kept one at that, must have been at least 80 years old by now. We were in a small village, slightly bigger than the one I live in, the kind where the biggest problem would have been a big mouthed fellow or wild animals approaching the houses. You wouldn't expect an inn in such a place, which made it seem weirder than it should have. Maybe people that worked with or against demons and other evil beings were just weird in general. Sir Adam was in the middle of nowhere with nothing much to his name yet he was definitely a veteran when it came to such dangers, so it wouldn't be impossible to say something like that.
Sir Adam entered the building and I followed behind. Inside was a large room with several tables, unsurprisingly the only person present was a woman in her late 20s or early 30s. She was young if she actually owned the business but maybe she was the daughter or niece of the owner or just a worker, that's what passed through my mind, not that I knew that much about inns, only things that I've heard from sir George and the other workers.
"What can I help you with?" the woman awoke me from my thoughts with a warm voice.
"Is the old man… Peter here?"
"Who might you be?" her voice changed in an instant, her eyes resembling that of a wolf looking at a dangerous hunter or one of his rival packs.
"An… acquaintance."
"I see now. Very well, wait here."
The woman went through a door and made herself unseen with the loud crick of the unoiled hinges.
"Cristofor, stay next to the wall!" said sir Adam, his eyes glued to the door and an arm grabbing a chair.
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
I didn't ask again, I just did as he told me and took a few steps toward the farthest wall. He looked like the previous night, like he was ready to face a challenge as hard as dozens of those beasts. Was there danger around us? But it was just a little past the middle of the day, those things didn't show until the night even though the forest was almost pitch dark even with the sun above. They were supposed to work based on rules right. Was daytime not part of them, or? I didn't have time to question it any farther before the door that the woman used, flew open a wooded spike flying through the air towards sir Adam.
The spike was stopped by a chair, but, before sir Adam could get another view of the surroundings, a man with silver hair jumped towards him with a cup with some liquid and a silver knife smeared with what smelled like garlic.
The man threw the contents of the cup, a liquid that looked like normal plain water, towards sir Adam, and moved to stab him in the chest.
Sir Adam was able to block the liquid with one arm, while grabbing the knife with another, but he was quickly pushed to the ground by his foe.
"Parlay!!!" yelled sir Adam with a small amount of fear in his voice.
The man stopped before he could jump above sir Adam, looking surprised and angry at the same time. "Have you not come to take my head sucker or now, that you are faced with death itself, you've changed your suicidal attempt?"
"Neither, old fool. I've come to ask for help."
"You've finally lost what was left of that mind of yours. You must be insane if you'd think that I'd help you after all you've did. I shall put an end to this charade of yours." said the man while preparing to attack once more.
"Eve is dead!"
That last remark made both me and the man freeze in shock. I still couldn't fully accept that my mother was truly gone. It hurt more than anything that I've ever felt and it seemed to have the same effect in sir Adam's foe.
After a few moments the man grabbed sir Adam by the arm and lifted him up with the ease that only someone less than half his age could have done.
"You better talk fast and careful or you won't get a third chance." said the man, his face still showing anger, but this time not towards sir Adam.
He wasn't a tall man, being a head shorter than sir Adam and slightly shorter than me, but his body looked like that of someone who was ready to face the biggest of enemies even one handed. He was old, maybe in his 60s or even early 70s, surely not the kind of age that you'd find someone moving so fast. All his attacks took maybe 10 seconds at most, 10 seconds in which he took someone bigger than himself down.
"Eva was killed two nights ago. A large pack of hell beasts attacked her village and killed everyone but one."
"That one being the boy." said the old man, finally looking towards me.
"Yes. He is her son."
The old man looked me up and down again and again, trying to find any similarity to my mother. "You do have her eyes and nose. My name is Peter. What is your name, son?"
"Cristo, Cristofor, sir."
"Leave out the sir, call me Peter. Your mother was like my own daughter and you are my grandson by association." his face was showing a warmth that only an older family member could show. I've seen that kind of look on my mother's face many times and, once more, it calmed me down.
"Yes, Peter."
"Good." he said while nodding before turning back towards sir Adam. "So who is after him? Is it the cult from the west, the ghost of that satanist Cain, one of the princes or who?'
"Non. I think it's Alucard."
"Are you sure?" said Peter while gritting his teeth.
"I smelt his blood in their veins. If it's not him then it's one of his close descendants, which I doubt knowing his likes."
"You bastard!" said Peter while punching the closest table to him, nearly breaking it. "You said you've slain him, that you've seen his corpse burn in the sun of 1st of august 1902. Have you lied to us, to her all this time?"
"I am certain that he died! There is no way he survived after being plunged in a lake of holy water while in the sun. I don't know how he is alive, but I know that I don't have the power to kill him a second time. I am in front of you, eating what remained of my rotten pride, to ask you to help me, no, to help Eva and her son. Please, I don't care if you put a bullet in my head right after, I am begging you." pleaded sir Adam while getting down on his knees.
"He sounds like he is telling the truth. I remember him bringing back that vampire's coat as a trophy and those who were with him told the same story." said the woman, entering the room once more, this time with three cups of water and some cuts of smoked meat. "I'd say that you should hear him out."
"Since when have you gotten so smart you little witch."
"A witch always knows when to hide her abilities. Isn't that what you always say? Come on, I've brought smoked meat."
"Are you using spells against me? I've raised only traitors. Fine. Get up! You will live to see tomorrow." said Peter while grabbing sir Adam once more.
As soon as sir Adam got back up, the woman pullet more seats to a table, leaving the meat and water on it. The three of us gathered at the table and sat down.
"So the undead dead raised from his casket once more to kill my sweet Eva and now he is after her son and I bet that he won't stop at that. Do you know at least how strong he is?"
"Stronger than before, he sent an army of over 30 beasts just the previous night and knowing Eva, she likely took a dozen or more with her."
"So around 50 summons as his offensive army, likely a dozen or more with him as defensive army. That's 5 times more than before. Are you sure you've counted properly?"
"My eyes work as well as ever, especially in the dark."
"I guess you wouldn't need glasses, now would you."
"Son, is he telling the truth?"
"I haven't seen them but I counted at least 42 shots from his revolver that night."
"42? Hmm? With your marksmanship I would say that 30 or more would be a reasonable estimate. Maybe Eva didn't take that many down? No, that would be impossible, even with a kitchen knife she could deal with an army of undead."
"Are you sure that mother was that strong?"
"Son, I've met only 10 creatures stronger than her in my life, Lucifer, the sucker in front of you, that corpse Alucard, 3 holy knights that have passed decades ago 2 Cherubim level hunters, a necromancer with 100 undead under his command and myself. I might add that not in that order, but point is that she was a 1 in a billion. Although I have yet to meet the other 6 princes and any angels, so my ranking of her might change in the future.
"You've, you've seen the devil?"
"Fought him too, but that is a story for another time. Now, the only other explanation is that he can resummon faster than before, at least a dozen or more in a day. That leaves 40 summons at a minimum, with 10+ on standby or more than 60 summons, with around 2 on standby. It's not a good amount for us."
"That's why I want to ask the catholic church and the Dracula order for help."
"Hmm, I might be able to pull some strings with the Dracula order, get us a dozen men, maybe 2 of powers level or above."
"What is the Dracula order?"
"An order originally made as the orthodox church holy knights."
"Except that we haven't been affiliated with any church since more than 3 centuries ago. It's pointless to call us holy knights." interjected Peter a little annoyed by sir Adam's choice of words. "We are a bunch of mongrels that have nothing better to do than fighting those who have wronged us, it just so happens that most of the time we are talking about some kind of evil force like cultists, demons or evil spirits. We are ranked with the angel hierarchy, our achievements pushing us higher or lower on the ranking. I've heard of more than a few idiots trying to go after Alucard to reach the rank of Seraphin in an instant, all died like idiots, not like we've had anyone worth that rank in the past century."
"Have you been one too?"
"Yes, best in my time."
"What about you, sir Adam?"
"I've worked with them but I've never joined."
"Now, to more important matters. How are you going to make the church help you?"
"I will tell them about the boy."
"Hmm, a bait for potentially the strongest evil in the mortal world. I don't think it's worth enough, especially with how their country is doing at the moment."
"I have another way to pay them."
"Hmm, I see. I can guess what that is. Fine, I will help you."
"Good. Didn't expect anything less."
"You sucker… Rita, get the barriers up, we might have some guests tonight."
"Already did."
"You little witch. Stop manipulating my decisions to meet your intentions."
"You would have sided with them anyway, I just kept you from killing a good asset." said Rita while exiting the room once more.
"Shouldn't have taught you anything. As soon as I die you will take over the world."
"At this point I would be surprised if you aren't the one closing the casket on me and what would I do with the world? A country is more than enough for little old me."
That night was quieter than any other. No beasts showed up but neither did the animals dare make a sound. It was like the world knew that something was wrong, but they couldn't point at what it was. My sleep was hard, I awoke in cold sweats again and again. Every time I woke up, I saw sir Adam out the window, waiting outside for anything to happen, but nothing did. I still wonder if he ever slept or if he even had the need for it.