13. The Night Before the Dawn 3:30 A.M.
Mathias sat atop of a tall oak looking out into the distance with a pair of binoculars staking out the huge mansion estate that sat a mile and a half away. A crooked smile sat upon his face as he lowered the binoculars before glancing down to the ground below him.
"Everything is falling into place boys!" he called out his country drawl echoing into the distance a bit. Before he hopped down from the tree as he tossed a rope up as it caught his fall right before he landed.
Looking at the group who sat in wait upon decent sized rocks or fallen trees. Smiling to himself he walked to a decent sized tent that they had set up a few days prior. Entering the tent Mathias looked around as his eyes landed on a man and a woman leaning over the table that was set up in the middle of the room looking over a map of the estate grounds.
"Are you sure tonight is the right play for taking one of of the larger independent houses that exist?" The man said as he placed a piece on the map as he studied it. "What did you see this time when you looked at the estate?"
"What I saw was that it was unguarded. Which is really foreboding if you take into consideration that it is the middle of the night." Mathias spoke as his mind raced with the possible outcomes as he glanced to the girl. "Will you be with us if anything were to go wrong Sister Tessa?"
"I will only be there when I am needed. And when gods will decides so." Sister Tessa spoke in a knowing tone as she looked to Mathias. "And the word of god is that tonight is a favorable night indeed to do something about this vampiric house."
"That is exactly what I wanted to hear." Mathias smiled as he walked to a weapons chest as he opened it pulling out a long four foot long silver blade with a cross shaped hilt. The hilt itself was made out of layered silver, and inlaid into the butt of the blade was a crimson red ruby. Setting the blade aside he pulled out a hand full of stakes and other necessities that were required for taking on vampires. And a large number of them at that. They only had one shot to bring such a major house down, and if the god of the Sister deemed tonight the night. Then tonight would be the night they killed a vampire lord.
"You seem oddly unexcited for this hunt Mathias." The man said as he opened his own weapon chest pulling out pieces of a large scythe out as he began to put it together. The man was well built in a lean kind of way. His skin was a dark ebony color and his eyes were a strangely vibrant jade color that clashed with the color of his skin, and made him stand out more.
"I am unexcited because if I were to be too hasty with such a important hunt, it could cost us all our lives Ramses. And I know your cup of tea ain't vampires in the slightest. But I figured if the church was going to hire a Grimm to send on a hunt with us, we should take it." Mathias spoke quietly as he finished gearing up looking to the Sister. "Sister Tessa. Would you kindly bless us with a few words before we go forth and do the lords work?"
Nodding the Sister walked out of the tent and into the woods towards the clearing as Mathias and Ramses followed in suit. "Come on boys and stand with Sister Tessa as she gives us the lords blessing!" Mathias called out to the group who was sitting around the camp, as they slowly stood and stretched before making there way out into the clearing that separated them from the house of vampires.
Sister Tessa turned and faced the group of ten as she smiled in their direction with a warm and hopeful smile. Tessa stood at a tall height of six foot four, clothed in conserving white roves and a black cloak draped over her shoulders. Her platinum blonde hair shined in the bright moonlight like a beacon.
Clearing her throat before she spoke she gave each and every one of them a slow look. "May gods have mercy on the blasphemous souls that exist in the dead of the forbidden night. And may his light shine above you brave soldiers of the lord and savior. And may he bless your blades and your stakes, your holy water and your silvered bullets. May he bless your blood, and bless your soul. Upon this night, the night holiest of nights. And days into the future. May he bless your lives for a long and eternal life amongst the lords children. Should you fall, should you live. You will be deemed paladins in the eyes of the lord. Paladins of the light who fight the hordes of the damned in the unnatural night. In the name of the heavenly father, our lord and savior. I bless thee with the lords blessing as you go into the night to eradicate darkness from the world of light." Sister Tessa spoke her long prayer to the group before her each one doing the cross prayer formation as she blessed them with her words withing the lunar light.
Smiling Mathias turned to his men as he drew his blade from its sheathe and raised it into the air. "Tonight men! we burn this estate to the ground! And every vampire we come across with it! I do not want to see any living vampires, if they fight back. Fight back harder. If they run, give them a cowards death. But never fall back!" He roared loudly to his men as they all raised their weapons into the air and quickly split off into the night heading their own directions.
Turning to walk straight towards the estate followed by Ramses, Mathias sheathed his blade as he glanced up to the moonlit sky seeing all the stars twinkling within the cosmic void.
"I hope the Sister knows my very existence is an insult to her god." Ramses chuckled as Mathias elbowed him in the gut.
"Just don't let her hear you bad mouthing her god. We are lucky enough to have been granted the assistance of two powerhouses." Mathias said in response as he began the mile and a half long trek to the massive estate.