Trinity Blood Fan Fiction ❯ Blood Sacrifice ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

This is a work of fanfiction and is intended for entertainment purposes only. Trinity Blood and its respective characters are the property of their creator and distributors. The overall plot however, as well as any original characters are the property of the authors.

Author's Note: This story takes place after the events in "Silent Noise" and before those in "The Ibelis 1: Evening Visitors" of the anime series

 

Blood Sacrifice

Chapter One

 

"You wished to see me, Your Eminence?"

Abel Nightroad's voice sounded almost unnaturally loud in Cardinal Catarina Sforza's silent office, and it immediately drew the woman's attention away from a stack of papers littering her desktop. When she regarded Abel's slender form, silhouetted in the doorway, she smiled a bit. "I did," she said. "Come in, Abel, please."

On silent feet, Abel made his way over to Catarina's desk and stood silently, his blue eyes on her intently. Catarina considered him in equal silence for a time before she spoke. "There's a situation in Hispania that I would like you to look into."

Abel stiffened at that, a muscle in his jaw clenching. But when he spoke, his voice was soft and even. "Yes, of course," he said. "Do you have any information for me concerning the situation?"

Catarina shuffled briefly through the papers on her desk. "Not much, I'm afraid," she said. "All I've been told is that there was some kind of slaughter in a small church on the outskirts of Valentia. All of the humans within were murdered, as were a small number of Methuselah."

"Both?" Abel said, tilting his head to the side slightly.

Catarina nodded. "Valentia is somewhat unusual, as it seems to have been mostly untouched by the conflict between Terrans and Methuselah. Both live in the city, and both exist peacefully side by side. Needless to say, this kind of incident runs the risk of disturbing that delicate peace."

Abel nodded. "I see. When do I leave?"

"Your ship departs in three hours. Your partner will meet you on board."

Abel frowned. "Lady Catarina—" he began, but the scarlet-clad woman cut him off.

"This point isn't open for debate, Abel," she said, her tone firm. "Hispania has become an unstable area after the incident with the Silent Noise system. I'm not sending anyone into an area like that without a partner. Not even you."

Abel fell silent at that; he could have argued further, but Catarina's reasoning was sound, and any arguments he threw at her at this point would sound petulant. "As you will."

 

 

The docks along the Tiber were bustling with activity, and Abel did his best to stay out of the way of the sailors and cargo handlers as they came and went, many carrying or pushing carts loaded with luggage and other goods. It wasn't hard for him to stay out of the way; his dark robes leading many to give him a wide berth, parting as he passed like water before the prow of one of the proud-looking ships that lined the slips. It didn't take too long to find the vessel that he and his partner had been booked on, and after crossing the gangway, he sought out one of the less harried-looking sailors. A brief conversation revealed that so far, no one else wearing clothing similar to Abel's had been seen.

The priest took his leave of the sailor and made a quick circuit of the deck, but saw no one that he recognized. Checking a small pocket watch he carried, the priest realized they'd be sailing soon, and found a place along the ship's railing near the entrance to wait for his partner to arrive. Part of him was concerned that his partner, whoever it was, wouldn't show up. But another part of him, a tiny voice that whispered in his ear, reminded him that if his partner missed the boat, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing at all.

Several long minutes later, he heard the call go up for final boarding and moved away from his place, making room for people waving farewell to family members, lovers, and the like. The priest wanted no part of that, and quietly made his way to another part of the deck to settle and wait until they were underway.

 

 

The gangway was just starting to retract, and dockworkers were beginning to cast off the ship's moorings when there was a small commotion on the dock as a black-clad man, with a traveling pack over his shoulder, pushed his way through the gathered crowd. The dark-haired man offered no apologizes as he hurriedly made his way towards the ship, despite the numerous looks that he received at his rudeness.

"Wait a minute!" he yelled as he broke into a run before vaulting from the wooden dock and onto the gangway, the man reaching out to grab the railing to steady himself as the metal walkway continued to draw back towards the deck of the ship.

Before the gangway retracted completely, the brunette man jumped the easy distance onto the top deck of the ship, landing firmly on his feet before resettling his pack. A grin split his handsome face, though whatever personal satisfaction he was feeling was quickly swept away as he was immediately accosted by the ship's first mate and another sailor. "Just in time." he said to the two men, his grin still flashing.

"Excuse me sir." the mate said as his eyes flicked over the man's white-trimmed ebony robes. "May I see your boarding pass?"

"Boarding pass?"

"Yes, Sir. Your boarding pass."

"Uh yeah...uhm...well it's kind of funny... the dark-haired man started.

The first mate raised his eyebrow.

"I have one," the man started to explain. "But I don't have one...

"You don't have a boarding pass?"

"I do." the man responded. "But I'm not the one who has it."

"I'm sorry, Sir. But you can't come aboard without a ticket."

"Look buddy," the grin had already slid from the brunette's face. "I'm supposed to be meeting someone, and they're supposed to have the ticket."

The commotion had already drawn attention from several people nearby, and it drew Abel from his thoughts as well. Frowning curiously, the priest almost ignored it, until he got a glimpse of dark robes and resisted the urge to swear. Rising to his feet, he made his way towards the gathering crowd.

León Garsia de Asturias was still arguing with the ship's mate, the broad-shouldered man looking none-to-happy, his dark eyes flashing in anger as he tried, unsuccessfully, to reiterate his explanation. By this time, the ship had been completely freed of its moorings, and was beginning to pull away from the dock, the wheelhouse having no idea that there was a problem on the deck.

"If you don't have a boarding pass," the first mate said crisply. "Then I have no choice but to consider you a stowaway."

"A what?" León's voice rose, in both anger and disbelief.

"Unless, of course, you have money to pay for a ticket?" The mate looked at the black-clad man knowingly. "Although I'm not sure if we have any berths available, which means that you'd have to sleep out on the deck."

León scowled at the mate. "Why you..."

As Abel drew closer, he heard León before he saw him, and exhaled an internal sigh, even as he fought the urge to smile. There were worse people to have watching his back, even if he could have done without the whole incident. Pushing his way quickly through the crowd, Abel waited until he had broken through the ring of people before he spoke. "I'm sorry, gentlemen," he said, raising his voice enough to be heard. "Is there a problem here?"

Both men turned at the sound of the priest's voice. "It's about damn time." León said.

"I'm afraid you'll have to forgive us," Abel said, not looking at León just yet as he turned the whole of both his attention and his charm on the first mate. "We got separated and I ended up with both boarding passes." The two slips of paper were produced from some hidden pocket in Abel's robes. "I hope we haven't caused too much trouble," the man went on as he offered them to the first mate.

The sailor took the offered slips, and looked them over, glancing at Abel once or twice as he purposefully examined the passes before handing them back to the pale-haired man. "They seem to be in order."

"I truly am sorry about the misunderstanding," Abel went on, grabbing León's arm in a firm grip and steering him away from the sailors. "We'll just be taking our leave now..."

"Hey!" León started to protest as the ivory-haired priest pulled him through the crowd, which by that time had started to part a bit to let them through. Abel ignored the protest, not releasing León until they were clear of the crowd, exhaling a soft sigh of relief. The brunette glowered at his companion. "Where the hell were you? You were supposed to meet me on the dock."

"Where were you?" Abel countered. "I waited for you. Even once I was on the ship, I waited by the entrance until the last few minutes."

León's ire cooled a bit. "Okay, so maybe I was a few seconds late... he reached and scrubbed his hand through his long unruly hair.

Abel tried to keep a stern gaze on the man, but found it almost impossible. "It's all right. We've cleared things up and we're both here...Let's just leave it at that, hm?"

The other man nodded his head in agreement, though he grumbled a bit under his breath.

"I wasn't expecting you," Abel said, smiling a bit at the grumbling.

"You were waiting for me, but you weren't expecting me?"

Abel considered that question for a moment, and then laughed softly. "Let me clarify. I was waiting for whoever my partner was supposed to be...but I didn't know it was going to be you until I actually saw you."

"Disappointed?" Leon inquired his golden brown gaze intent on the priest's china blue eyes.

Abel shook his head. "Not at all, what makes you say that?"

The brunette shrugged his broad shoulders slightly. "It has been a while."

Abel smiled a bit, and when a quick glance showed him no one paying attention, murmured. "Too long. I've missed you, León."

The dark-eyed man gave his companion a small smile. "It's good to see you too, Junior."

 

 

"So...how much did they tell you?"

León looked over at Abel, the dark-tressed man seated on the edge of one of the double beds in their cabin, having claimed it for himself. Abel had made the suggestion that they find their quarters before getting into a discussion on their current assignment, the priest stressing that Catarina had wanted to keep things as quiet as possible.

The cabin they had been assigned to was small and sparse, nothing to write home about as León had commented before tossing his travel pack on the bed closest to the door. Besides the pair of beds there was a large wardrobe for their clothing as well as a small table and two chairs, presumably for them to take their meals and a separate bath. The latter had been a welcomed sight to León, the dark-haired man rarely having a chance to bathe alone.

"Not much." León replied. "Just there was some kind of a massacre in a church in Valentia that involved both humans and vampires; and that it was a ... how did the Professor say it? A delicate situation."

"Ah, so they sent the Professor to make contact with you, then," Abel said, nodding to himself. "Well, I don't know much more than you do, but here's what Lady Catarina's told me." And after taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he told León about the discussion he'd had with the Cardinal, omitting only their brief disagreement over Abel taking a partner.

"Delicate was an understatement." the dark-haired man remarked after a few moments.

"Indeed," Abel said, nodding. "But it's why Lady Catarina is stressing utmost quiet with this mission."

"I haven't been up to that area in years." León mused. "Probably not since I first joined up with the army."

Before the events that had led to his becoming a member of the AX, León had been a decorated soldier in the army of the Kingdom of Hispania, the majority of his career spent in the southern territory of Morocco where he had grown up.

"Even so, you know Hispania much better than I do," Abel said. "I haven't been back since..." He trailed off, and then waved it off. "Never mind...I'm just grateful to have a native along."

León didn't miss the hesitation, though he said nothing. The dark-haired man leaned back on his elbows, his legs hanging over the side of the bed. "So what's the game plan?"

"Once we've arrived in Valentia, I want to examine the church. Lady Catarina has sent ahead the order to seal the building down until we arrive, though if I know the people, they're likely to remove the bodies first. Once we've done that, then I think we should get in touch with the local authorities, see if there's any information that's come up that wasn't in the report submitted to the Vatican."

The broad-shouldered man nodded, his dark eyes settling on the pale-haired man once again. "And before we arrive in Valentia?" he asked after a moment or two.

Abel looked over at León and smiled a bit. "I thought I might leave that up to you."

A slow grin split the dark-eyed man's lips. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

Abel chuckled. "I didn't think you'd mind that too much," he said.

"Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?"

"Sometimes," Abel said, slipping his glasses off so he could clean the lenses.

León's elbows slid down as the dark-haired man lowered himself the rest of the way until he was lying on his back. The front of his robes, already opened from neck to waist, a wide white sash wound around his waist, parting a slight bit to reveal more of his tanned and muscled chest. Abel looked up as he heard León shift, and slipped his glasses back on. "So what kept you?" He finally asked. "It's not like you to cut things quitethat close."

"Do you know how far it is from the prison to here?" the prone man asked. "And since I don't have any money, and the Professor didn't leave me any, I had to come all the way on foot; and I busted my ass to get here too."

Abel frowned a little and looked at his partner quietly for a moment. "They didn't arrange for transportation for you?"

"If they did, it never showed up. If I hadn't been standing around waiting for somebody to show up I probably would have been here sooner."

Abel shook his head; it was an unusually sloppy means of handling things, but the Professor was human, and prone to absent-mindedness. The priest made a mental note to have a word with him about it when they returned to Rome. "I'm sorry. If I'd known about it, I could have tried to make arrangements for you."

León shrugged. "It's done with now, so don't worry about it. It's not your fault."

"I suppose there's that. And you're here, which is the important thing."

The brunette shifted slightly so that he could pillow his head on his arm. Abel watched the other man in silence for a few moments, before rising to his feet and moving over to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. León's brown eyes followed the priest's movements, the fingers of his free hand reaching out to toy with the end of Abel's gathered tail of pale hair after the man settled next to him. It had been quite some time since the two had seen one another, León having been returned to prison a few days after the capture of the pope's uncle, Arch Bishop D'Este, and the Silent Noise system before it could destroy Rome just as it had Barcelona.

Abel turned toward the man a little, reaching down to lay one gloved hand on León's exposed chest, looking down at the dark-haired man and smiling. Unwinding his arm from behind his head, the brunette pushed himself up into a sitting position. Winding his hand around Abel's silky ivory locks, he gripped them lightly before giving the ponytail a slow, gentle pull to draw the priest closer. Abel's hand never left León's chest as he shifted closer, meeting the man's dark eyes for a few long moments before leaning in and capturing León's lips in a heart-felt kiss. A soft, nearly inaudible sound escaped from the brunette as their mouths met, León returning the warm press of lips with just as much affection.

Exhaling a soft sound of his own, Abel let his gloved hand slide up León's chest, caressing the side of his neck, before cupping his cheek. The soft, supple leather rasped over the stubble on the dark-eyed man's jaw, the caress drawing another small sound from him, León's other hand settling lightly on Abel's thigh. The hand was warm, even through the fabric of his robes and the trews beneath, and Abel made another soft sound. The kiss continued on, the press of León's lips against the other man's becoming much more firm as he tilted his dark-head slightly, his hand rubbing light circles over Abel's ebony-clad thigh as he began to reacquaint himself with the priest.

Abel didn't seem to mind a bit, parting his lips as León tilted his head, a silent invitation to the man. He took his hand from León's cheek for a few moments though, reaching to strip away his gloves, tossing them blindly toward the other bed. León waited until the ivory-haired man's hands were on him once again before he took that invitation, slipping his tongue between Abel's welcoming lips and into the moist cavern of his mouth, the brown-eyed man's hand unconsciously tightening in the pale locks slightly as their tongues met.

The two had first become intimate a few years after León had become a member of AX, Abel being his initial contact when the offer had been made, the blue-eyed man quietly laying out Catarina's terms from behind a piece of reinforced glass, León handcuffed to the chair he was sitting in on the other side. The brunette had liked him almost immediately, the priest seemingly not afraid of him, appearing completely composed for someone who was in the presence of a convicted mass murderer. That Abel's tone and manner had been decidedly genuine and not patronizing had earned him the brunette's respect as well. The priest had also been the one to travel with him to Rome and present him to his new employer.

For whatever reason, Abel had apparently been made León's unofficial liaison with Catarina, the pale-haired man bearing her offers for missions to the brown-eyed brunette, as well as being designated his partner nine times out of ten. The two got along and worked together well, León finding that he was more comfortable in Abel's company then he was in that of the other AX members, though that was through no fault of theirs for the most part. It had been during a mission in Venice when the two had come together for the first time, giving into what had been a quiet mutual attraction.

Abel had never minded the job, and had likewise liked León from the moment they had met. The man could be brash, true, but Abel had never once been given cause to fear him, the two of them earning the respect of the other quickly. Abel had always treated León like a person, and unlike most of the other AX members had at first, León hadn't assumed him weak or incapable, in spite of the facade he was often forced to give to the world. His attraction for the other man had risen just as quickly, and had been difficult to hide, but it wasn't hard to be drawn in by León's blunt manner and rugged good looks. There was something unruly, and just a little wild about the larger man, and it had fascinated Abel.

The thought made Abel smile a little into the kiss, moaning softly as his hands settled on León's chest again. In truth, León had never stopped fascinating him. Their relationship was odd to be sure, the nature of León's situation being such that sometimes months would pass before they were able to see one another again; and due to their circumstances as members of the AX and their positions within the Vatican, they had to be as inconspicuous as possible. Though a great many things had changed within the church over the centuries, there were still some things that were quite frowned upon.

As the kiss became more heated, León's hand traveled the length of Abel's slim thigh, rubbing light circles over the priest's knee cap before unwinding his hand from the man's pale gossamer hair and slipping his arm around his waist. Abel's hands whispered along León's chest again, fingers sliding through the dusting of coarse hair he found there, and slid his arms around the dark-haired man's neck, breaking the kiss only when the need for oxygen finally required it. León gasped softly, his lips brushing over the blue-eyed man's jaw. "Didn't think you'd still be interested in spending time with me." he said softly, his breath ghosting over Abel's pale skin.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Abel whispered back, shivering at that teasing caress of warm breath.

"Oh I don't know..." the other man responded in-between soft kisses. There was something going around about you having a thing for statuesque blondes with mountains of attitude."

"And just who started that vicious rumor?" Abel murmured, his eyes falling closed as León kept dotting kisses along his skin.

"Is it a rumor?" León's breath whispered in the pale-haired man's ear.

Abel gasped in a soft breath at that, shivering. "Of course it is. The only mountain of attitude I'm even remotely interested in is you," He whispered back.

The other man chuckled slightly as he pulled back a bit to look at Abel. "Junior, I'm a whole mountain range of attitude."

Abel laughed softly at that, and reached up to brush a few errant wisps of hair from León's eyes. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

The brunette grinned before moving back in to recapture the priest's mouth in another kiss, León slowly pulling Abel down onto the bed. The priest went willingly, meeting León's kiss with just as much emotion as the first, one long-fingered hand burying itself in León's dark hair. León's hand settled on the ivory-haired man's slim hip, the broad-shouldered man nudging his knee between Abel's legs as he settled his weight over the priest. Though their partings were almost always bittersweet, it all seemed worth it somehow whenever they came together again after a lengthy time apart.

Abel exhaled a soft, pleased moan as León settled over top him, the arm that had been looped around León's shoulders loosening its hold to allow him to smooth a palm down the dark-haired man's back. And so the two stepped onto that path of rediscovery once more, León and Abel spent a healthy portion of their short trip in each other's arms, making up for lost time while they could, before the press of their mission took precedence over their lives once again.