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         The two prisoners kept there

were-forms for the convenience of having fur. A quick exploration of the cell

revealed that it was walled up in sliver, just like the our walls, an that the

ceiling was largely stone, except for a large area of wood that logically

opened up like a trap door.Overall it seemed very medieval and

almost over the top, sort of SYFY Channel-ish. The only thing missing was a

trap door in the floor and some sort of faked-up movie monster. Then Edward reconsidered.

They were filling that particular role quite nicely.Maggie walked around, keeping away

from the walls. "I think that the tarnish on it might not be as bad as the pure

metal, but I don't feel like finding out. Do you think you could take down the

door?"Edward examined it. Silver ran

through it just like the one upstairs. Whoever had build this place had done so

specifically to house werewolves. "Maybe. It depends on whether or not the

silver will react with me faster than I can smash it down.""Then I guess we sit tight for the

moment.""Really? What gave you that idea?""Oh sit down. We'll get out. It's

just a matter of time.""Do you mean as living breathing

people, or as ashes in a dustpan?"She sat on his lap.  "The man is a fool. He's not a complete fool,

but he lacks a few things.""Such as?""Such as experience in dealing

with me. He's too easily spooked and thrown off. He wants the ring pretty damn

badly. I mean, sure, it's a cool item to have if you're one of us, but there

must be something more. The ring must do more than we know. I mean, this guy is

old. I don't know how old, but I think it's more than we might think. I wonder

if the ring can extend your life too?""Who could say? Werewolves already live

longer than a normal person, leastwise that's my understanding. Someone would

have to wear it continuously until their dying day. And I don't think anyone

has ever had a chance to do that. It definitely didn't help my grandparents.""True, but it's worthy of a

thought, don't you think?""Yes, and that's about it. A

thought. If we don't get out of here, we're going to be dead before that

becomes an option."She circled the room again, sizing

it up. "Well, they would assume we would take the door as out only means of

escape. So they have set guards to attend it night and day I'm sure. So we need

to get out some other way."He looked around. "Let's see.

Barred door, silver lined walls, solid bedrock floor, ceiling that opens into a

room full of loose silver. I think we're staying put for now. Once he finds the

box, then maybe he'll feel a little more forgiving.""I doubt that very much. And he

won't find the box.""What? Why?""I found it already. That's why I

was gone so long. You guys seemed to want to leave everything to chance." Her

voice was unusually clear and loud."Then you have the ring?""I said I found the box. You guys

had the key. We left before I could open it again."He sunk to the floor. A dejected

werewolf was not a common sight. "If we had the ring, then we might have a

chance of getting out of here. Where did you hide it?""None of your business. If we get

out of here, then maybe I'll tell you."They heard a noise outside their

door. "Thank you young lady! I was wondering if I should kill you or not. You

may have bought yourself a few more days of life. But if you don't eventually

tell me where the box is hidden, I will take it out on your family one member

at a time.""My family? I don't have any

family. I'm an orphan, remember? So you can do what you want. The fact is, I

have the box and you don't. And until you decide to treat us better, I'll not

talk.""Oh, you'll talk my dear. If I have

to starve you for a year, you'll talk!" The cardinal left and walked up the

stairs, chuckling loudly."Mags, what the hell did you just

do?""I knew he was there. He breathes

too loud. He now thinks I have the box. So therefore he has reason to keep us

alive.""So where is the box?""In the river.""But you said...""Duh! If he thought it was still in

the river, he'd look. Now he won't waste his time. So it's essentially safe wherever

it's at.""Your logic seems sound, but I

don't know how long your plan will keep us alive.""We don't need time," she said as

she circled the sole, lonely mattress on the floor. "We need a rope.""A rope?!""Yes, a rope. I think I have it

figured out. The only way out is up!"He looked up at the dimly lit

ceiling. "You must have better eyes than I do because I can't see anything but

heavy beams and timbers. And if we crack that open, then we're going to get the

last shower we'll ever need.""Precisely.""Mags, have you gone insane? Are

you suddenly suicidal?""Nope. But you will have to trust

me, and none of this halfway stuff. If I do something, you'll leave it alone,

and if I ask you to do something, you do it. OK?"He drew in a breath. "You're a

smart kid Maggie and I hate you for that. I think I'd feel better if I had some

idea of what you had planned.""I'd tell you, but someone may

still be listening," she said in hushed tones. "So you have to trust me."It was all too Three Musketeers/Man

in the Iron Mask-ish to suit his tastes. But she was right more often than not

and he was going to do his best to trust her. She had, at the least, more

experience being a werewolf than he did. The first thing they did was shred

the blanket and the mattress into strips. When they were done, he couldn't help

but remark how flimsy it was. "That's never going to hold any weight!""It doesn't need to." She walked

around and picked up a rusty iron bar, and tying the end to the rope, slid it

out the slit in the door. "Wish me luck!"He wished. He wished he knew what

she was doing. Whatever it was, he figured it would attract the archers, but if

their orders were strictly to stay put, then there was little they would do.

Besides, what were the prisoners going to do? Escape out the door and up the

stairs to another locked door blocked by another locked door, blocked by yet

another?It took her fifteen minutes of

maneuvering until she let out a little cry of success. "Got it!""Great! Got what?" His voice was

quiet and muted in the darkness. "The lever.""What lever?" Then his eyes went

wide. "The one that drops the room above down on top of us? Are you nuts?""No I'm not. Now, do you trust me?""You're nuts, totally fucking

nuts!""That does come into play, yes. Are

you ready?""For what? My funeral?""You are going to fuck me like your

life depended on it, because this once at least, it does.""Maggie, you're a lunatic!""You promised!""Oh Jesus Christ. Fine. What do I

have to do?""I said it already. You're going to

be fucking me while tons of silver come raining down on us.""Can I be on the bottom so that I

can watch you burn first?""Shut up! No one is going to burn."He stopped. "Mags, what aren't you

telling me?"She stuck her finger into her cunt

and slid out the Moonstone ring. "I told you that putting it back in the box

was stupid. I found a better hiding place for it. Of course, I had to hide it

somewhere else on the airplane. That might have been awkward.""So you can be protected from the

silver!""No, we will be.""Maggie, it only fits one person at

a time.""What, don't you believe in

sharing?"She slid the ring over his cock.

"You see, you wear the ring here, and then I wear you, and we'll both be

protected by the power within it. Then I pull the lever from here, and the

ceiling opens up and you can jump us both up to the room above, after all the

silver finishes falling of course.""And you figured this out before we

got here?""Oh hell no. I've been making this

up as we go along. I figured though that the ring would be handy, and I was

right. And since they think we don't have it, their guard will be down too.""Ok, so we open the ceiling and

pray this ring protects both of us. After that, we'll need to find our way back

to the cardinal's room and hope we can bash our way out of his quarters and up

those stairs to the surface.""Got that covered I think. But

you'll have to try really hard to be a smaller form. Your big self is nice and

handsome, but you really need to work on downsizing. Big isn't always better.""That's not what you said...""Shush! This is not the time for

it. I'm serious. In a little while I going to try and talk you through it. But

not right now.""So what do I do now?""Pick a position. I'd prefer you on

top, because there's going to be a lot of silver raining down. And while it

shouldn't hurt us now as werewolves, it'll still hurt. So you can be the

valiant and courageous male and protect me, the weaker female."He nearly coughed a lung with his

bark of amusement. "Fine. I guess if I'm going to go out, it might was well be

during a bang!"His cock was already hard, and the

ring was fitting snugly, just like a cock ring. The metal band grew with him,

never getting too big and threatening to slide off nor too small and

threatening to amputate it. Maggie spread her legs and once he forced his way inside,

closed her eyes and said a little prayer. She yanked the rope. Nothing

happened. She pulled harder, not wanting it to break. She felt the tension ease

up, and then with a clang, the works governing the ceiling were set into motion.The ceiling dropped inwards, and

with it a flood of coinage. Some of it was relatively new, from Nazi-era Marks,

all the way back to Roman coins dating to Julius Caesar.  They couldn't see them, for several reasons.

The main one was that they had their eyes clenched shut. But as the cascade

continued to pour down, and as neither of them was burning to death, they

relaxed and looked around."You might want to pick me up and

move to keep ahead of this pile. I have no idea when it will let up."He did as he was told, and sat down

to the side. He grabbed her and started working her up and down his cock. "Not

now! We don't have time for that!" It was a rare thing when she protested about

sex."Tough." He occupied their time for

the next ten minutes, until the coins were a slippery pile in the middle of the

floor, spreading out to all corner of the room.  At the shallowest, they were three feet deep.He stood, hoisting her up as she clung

to his neck. There was no footing to be had on the millions of dollars worth of

mintage littering the floor. It kept shifting and sliding. "Mags, I know I can

jump while carrying you, but I don't think I can do it while try to take off

from here. Any ideas?"She looked around. "No. I'd suggest

you just throw me up there and follow, but who's to say there aren't coins

still laying around up there?""Not I. And if you have the ring,

then I think I'll be a cinder in no time flat.""OK, OK; so I didn't think this all

the way through. I think you're just going to have to jump until you make it. I

don't see another way around it."He shifted her up and down a few

times on his cock. "You're going to enjoy this, aren't you father?""Who me? The only reason I'm not

terrified right now is because I have on protection!'She pursed her lips and fought back

a laugh. "Did you mean that the way it sounded?"He was a little flustered. "What?"

Then he realized what he had said. "God no! Girl, you are just too much

trouble!""Too much, or just enough?"He licked her face. "Just enough.

Are you ready?"She tightened her grip. "As ready

as I'll ever be!"He got down on all fours and gazed

upwards. The distance wasn't great, but while he had leaped on top of low

building in a single bound in New York, he was at running speed and did so off

of solid pavement. He had a feeling all he was going to be doing was spreading

coins around the cell.He drew in a breath and launched.

As expected, coins squirted out from under his feet. But he made a respectable

height before crashing back down. He kicked away coins as fast as his feet

could move them until his claws were touching the stone floor. However, the

coins slid back into the hollow and surrounded his legs."What are you doing?" she asked."I need a solid platform from which

to jump from. I think that now, despite the weight of the silver pressing against

me, I might have a chance. So hang on." He wound himself up like a spring, and

with a massive roar, leaped straight up. As he reached his zenith, he latched

onto the upper floor with his claws. The iron hard talons bit in and he was

momentarily left dangling. It wasn't easily doing this with two, and

considering where she was perched, it made it all the more distracting. He got his other paw up there, and

then putting forth a mighty effort, flipped backwards to land on the floor

above. It was dark. He couldn't see much, even with his enhanced vision. He

could feel metal underfoot as they had feared, and he kept Maggie right where

she was. Now that they were out of the cell, he could enjoy the feeling a

little easier. It was no bad thing.He couldn't find a light switch,

and even more puzzling, there seemed to be no door. "Maggie, how can a room

full of silver not have a door. How did they get all of this stuff in here?" For

that matter, how will they get it back up here?""If I were to guess, there is

either a chute system, or else the door is several feet off the ground.""Off the ground? You mean off of

floor level? That would be nuts!""No it wouldn't. That would leave

room to open it to toss in more coins and still allow the piles to grow. A

regular person might open a door and not be affected by the coins, but not the

cardinal. I mean, sure if he's dressed to the teeth, but why risk it?"He reached as high as he could and

found a ledge of sorts. Since the walls here weren't silver, but wood, he

hooked into it and hauled himself up. There was the door. He positioned himself

to smash it open. Maggie reached out from her perch and turned the knob. The

door swung open into another dimly lit room. "Check the knob stupid!"She stepped into the newest chamber

and closed the door. Maggie did a few thrusts before departing his cock. "We'll

have to go on a long walk sometime father, and you can give me a piggy front

ride!""You're on kiddo!"The room was filled with an odd

assortment of things. Maggie was openly gleeful when she held up male clothing

that would fit boys between ten and twelve years of age. "I wonder how many altar

boys he skewered before eating them?"She didn't wait for a reply. She

stared trying some of it on. "Mags, what the hell are you doing?""In case you forgot, we don't have

any clothing. I for one do not want to wander around Rome naked." She finally

got enough pieces together to make a suitable outfit. "Now you. We need to find

you something to wear too."He wasn't listening. He was

wandering around the room, sniffing at things and looking over the shelves full

of artifacts. Some of them were obviously rare church items, from gold crosses

to boxes of bone fragments (saints maybe) to other, more arcane and strange pieces.Maggie came over to look. "What is

all this stuff?""Like I know. Confiscated items?

Loot?""Maybe. But consider that this is

all under the jurisdiction of the cardinal, and the cardinal is a werewolf like

us and that he wants the ring. I'd say some of this stuff must be pretty important.""After we just came out of a

multimillion dollar shower of coins? Yeah, I'd think so. So maybe we should

take some of this stuff."She looked around. "Like what. There

is way too much stuff to take it all. We'd need a truck to haul it out of here."Look for small things. Anything

that might be important, but not immediately missed."They roamed around until they came

across a chest. It was locked, but Maggie found a brooch pin and used the

backing to work it open. When the lid came up, Edward growled. "I don't

understand."Inside were three boxes just like the

one they had lost. While not identical, it was apparent that despite being in

better condition they were in fact made by the same hand. Each box was the same

size, the same shape, but with different inscriptions.  And each one was locked."More rings?""I don't know. We don't have the

key to find out." They rummaged in the chest, hoping that a duplicate key was

hidden inside. There was nothing."Alright. We take these. If there

are more rings, then maybe something happens when you get all of them together."

He was well aware that he was still wearing one on his cock. It seemed indecent."So how many total then?""Mags, I don't fucking know! Just

find a bag and we'll take these with us. And don't forget to relock the trunk.

They'll figure this out eventually, but I don't want them knowing any sooner

than necessary."In the next room there was more

stuff, but none of it seemingly valuable. There were old monk's robes, old church

books in Latin, rolls of documents, and other miscellaneous discards. But on

the wall was a framed document. The fact that it was there meant it was held to

some higher standard than the other stuff. But it too was written in Latin.Maggie looked it over. "I'm not

sure, but I think this might be important.""It's old, that much is for

certain. But important? What makes you think so?""Two things. It's sealed inside a

frame that is hundreds and hundreds of years old. Even the glass is pretty

ancient. But the thing is, I can't read much of this Latin, but I can read

this."She pointed to a name.Alexander the Sixth. "So you think this is the original

copy of the directive for recovering the ring?""What do you think?" She didn't

wait for an answer. She smashed the glass and just stood there as a shower of

fragments rained down. She then pulled the vellum out, rolled it up and stuck

it in the bag. "Technically, without this, the whole Right Hand of God thing is

moot. Of course, the followers will never know. So I guess for now it'll be our

little secret.""But I still don't understand. I

thought our ring was unique.""Don't go assuming too much. These

boxes may contain rings, or they may contain nothing. Until we manage to get

them open, we'll never know for certain. And we still have to get out of

here...alive. Ring or no ring, I can't be mounting you every time there's

danger.""True on all accounts. So I guess

that's our next step. Why do you need me to try to be smaller? It's not like you're

all that tiny.""Not, but in what I am

contemplating, your enormous mass will not help. You need to think thin. Long.

Small. These are all things I can manage, thank you very much!""I hope you don't expect me to be

able to squeeze through a keyhole.""No. Now find a robe of something

to wear for once we get out of here." HE grabbed an old dusty robe off of a

stack. Even the dust looked ancient. They tried the only door they had left to

them and found it unlocked. As she pointed out, what was the point in locking

everything once you got down this far?They were now back to the

cardinal's chamber. The fire was burning with only embers, and the lights were

dim. Maggie went straight to his desk and started rifling through the drawers. "What are you looking for?"She shrugged as she kept pulling

out drawers and then shoving them back in. "I'll know when I see it."He paced the room, taking the time

to check the door leading to the stairway. IT was locked up tight. It was the

only way out of the room. There was no way he could reduce himself to the size

of a mouse. IT was impossible."Eureka!"He whipped around. "Not so loud!""Look!"It was a key similar to the one

that opened his box, the key he had left tucked away in his box of mementos.

"Do you think it'll fit the boxes?""One way to find out." She pulled

out the boxes and set them on the desk. The key went into the lock, but not

once did it ever open one. "I guess Leonardo made each lock and key different.""But then, what box does this go

to?""Duh! Probably a box the cardinal

still wants and needs. So we take this key too. I wish I knew for certain when

someone would be showing up." She was pacing around the desk all agitated. "Why? So that you can club someone

and take the keys so that we can get out?""No. I can already get out. It's

you I'm not so sure of. It's just that I'd really like some time to tear this

room apart. I think that there might be more here than meets the eye.""There probably is, as old as it

is. But I think we'll be leaving with more than we came with, so I say we count

our blessings and get out.""You're probably right. So how do

we do that?"She sighed. But she said nothing.

Instead he watched as her limbs elongated, from the fingers to the forearms,

legs, feet; everything. It was creepy. She looked like some grotesque character

of a human from some Stephen King novel. Even her head became misshapen."God Mags, you look horrible!""Thanks. You know how to make a

lady feel special." Then her tone changed. "Try it. You need to think long and

narrow.""But why?""Because stupid, we're leaving

through the chimney."It had always worked for Santa. And

he was fat. Edward willed his limbs to be longer. Nothing. He willed himself to

be smaller. Nothing. He wished himself to be human again. There he had success.

"This is all I can do. I think maybe your ability may be unique to you."She frowned, a lopsided sort of

thing on her present face. She looked around the room. There was a cord hanging

from the ceiling. Instead of just yanking it down, she made her way across the

wall like a spider. It was doubly freakish to watch. She unhooked the call pull

and tired it under his shoulders."I'll go first. Once I get you to

the chimney you'll need to use your strength to brace yourself as I work my way

up. I was hoping to make this quick, but it looks like we'll be going slowly. I

hope you're up for it!""Beats staying here. I think that

if we don't get out soon, someone will have no qualms about putting us down for

good.""Then let's do it!" She climbed up,

ignoring the hot bricks lining the fireplace. She made good time getting into

place. But she shouted back. "Give me a minute."The next instant the flue fell down

onto the dwindling coals. "I could have made it past it, but not you. Now get

moving!" He got a foothold on the still warm bricks and boosted himself up. She

tugged on the cord to help him along. And so it went. She would go to the

extreme reach of the cord, and them assist him up until he was right below

here. Back and forth, for what seemed like hours. But as they move ever higher,

a dim light could be seen above. Daylight.When they exited the grimy top,

they started several pigeons that had been sleeping on the rim. The chimney

rose several feet about the slanted rooftop, and from their perch they could

see much of Rome. Edward put on his robe now, as the air was cool and breezy.

Maggie refused to revert to her fully human self. "We aren't off this roof yet."If it had been nighttime, then we

could have changed to our were-forms again and made our way down without a

problem. Having already attracted a lot of attention in the states, this

probably wasn't a good idea. Plus we had to keep hidden. It wasn't like the

city didn't have helicopters flying overhead. The last thing we needed was to

be found out."She found an access panel and

pulled on it. It was locked form the inside. "Damn! We need to get off of here

sooner rather than later.""You want me to break it open?""And attract a lot of unwanted

attention? I don't think so. We'll do that as a last resort." She paced the

margins of the roofline, looking down and shaking her head. "There's one thing

to be said for old building like this. Heavy duty downspouts. This one has a

thick copper one we can go down. The question is , can we do it without being

spotted?""I think the better question is,

once we get down there where are we going to be at?""We'll still be on the grounds of

the Vatican, if that's what you're asking." "I guess then that it's a good thing

I have an old monks robe. I hope no one recognizes it as being old and out of

date. With so many factions in the church, maybe it will be excused.""Factions? You mean cults. But it

won't matter. If worse comes to worse, we'll rip our way out!""Mags, not everyone here is a

twisted freak. There are plenty of good people in the world. Tell me you'll

keep your excitability under wraps until there is actual trouble."

She growled. Then she smiled in a

sarcastic fashion. "Fine. But I will take the head off of anyone who I think is

not a pretty little do-gooder."