The walk to the outskirts of San Antonio took them the better part of most of the morning. They'd started early, and by the time they'd made it to the farm, it was almost one in the afternoon. The sun was blazing overhead, casting a bright glow down on the fields dirt road and the fields of grain that surrounded it.

And through it all, Alain and his friends trudged alongside Father Corrin and his four priests.

"Fuck me…" Alain grumbled, bringing a hand up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Sable had long since claimed his Stetson for herself; it looked funny on her, contrasting horribly with her ever-present black cloak, but it at least kept the sun from roasting her alive, so he wasn't about to disparage her for stealing it from him.

Father Corrin's brow furrowed. "Must you swear like a sailor in my presence?"

"Father, come on, swearing is the one vice we get as Catholics," Alain pointed out. "That and drinking. You of all people ought to know that."

Father Corrin said nothing, but his expression betrayed his annoyance. Someone tapped Alain on the shoulder, and he turned to find Az staring at him.

"It is probably not a good idea to irritate the professional monster hunters," Az pointed out.

Alain shrugged. "Just taking the piss a bit. But yeah, you're right – I'll lay off for now."

"Hm."

With that, their group went silent, save for a few of the priests whispering to each other. Occasionally, one of them would give Sable or Az a pointed glance, though they didn't try to make any moves towards either of them. Alain could only imagine that was because, despite outnumbering them slightly and being practiced against all forms of creatures from the other side of the Veil, Sable and Az were still comparative unknowns to them.

Of course, it probably helped that Father Alex had almost certainly told the rest of them about Alain's relationship to Sable. They had to be curious about why a vampire of her status would take a human as an apprentice. Alain couldn't blame them for it, either; after his talk with Father Alex, he was curious, too.

Sable had to have a deeper reason for inducting him as her apprentice aside from simply respecting him. Moreover, she had to have a reason for keeping it secret from Az, too. What that was, he couldn't quite figure out, though it didn't help that she'd been acting somewhat strange around him ever since making it official. She'd come to speak with him alone at night not even a day ago, and even now, he could see her watching him out of the corner of her eye, only to avert her gaze when she caught him staring back.

"What the hell is going on…?" Alain muttered.

Someone softly shoulder-checked him, and he whipped around towards them, only to refrain from telling them off when he saw it was Danielle.

"Are you blind, or just stupid?" she asked as she moved past him. "Seriously."

Alain blinked, somehow even more confused than he had been before. Danielle very rarely took a pointed tone with him like that, though he supposed that she had to be on-edge, given they'd made very little progress towards finding her father so far. He was willing to forgive her slight, given those circumstances. It didn't make her language towards him any less strange, of course, but at least there seemed to be an explanation for it this time, unlike what was going on with Sable.

"We're nearly there," Father Corrin suddenly announced, raising a hand to stop them all. They came to rest behind him, and he turned around to face them, then began to point to the other four priests who had accompanied him. "Father Jones, Father Simmons – I want you two with me. Father Michael and Father Gabriel, I want you in the fields providing cover for us."

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"And us?" Alain questioned. "What do you need us to do?"

"Hang back," Father Corrin answered.

A vein pulsed in Sable's forehead. "You can't be serious," she protested. "You have Az and I right here, and you're not willing to put us to use?"

"Because I don't trust either of you, that's why."

"That's-"

"Sable," Alain said, cutting her off. She gave him a look of dismay, but ultimately let her impending line of questioning die, instead falling silent. Alain took a breath, then looked back over to Father Corrin. "I take it you just want to talk to him for now?"

"Correct," Father Corrin said with a nod.

"Then I agree, it's best that Az and Sable hang back for now. The last thing we want is for them to scare him to death with their mere presence, or otherwise cause him to clam up."

"That's…" Sable hesitated, then gave a reluctant sigh. "...I guess that makes sense. Alright, fine, we'll stay hidden. But if we hear gunfire, we're running in to help."

Thankfully, that seemed agreeable enough to Father Corrin, as he nodded and then looked back over to Danielle. "I want you to stay back with them."

Danielle bristled at that. "And why should I? If my father is in there-"

"I doubt that very much," Father Corrin explained. "But if he is, we'll bring you to him in due time. For now, the safest place for you to be in the event that bullets start flying is close to those two."

"He's got a point," Alain said to her, only to pause. "I just noticed that you didn't tell me to hang back."

"You're coming with us," Father Corrin said. "This is supposed to be a show of good faith, after all. It's hard to accomplish that if you're hanging back with your friends."

"Alain-" Sable began, only for him to cut her off with a shake of his head.

"I suppose that makes sense," Alain conceded. "Alright, I'm with you five. Lead the way."

Sable gave him a look of sheer indignation, which he wilted under as he stepped past her and began to follow Father Corrin further down the path. In her defense, she did keep telling him to stop putting himself in the firing line so frequently, but at the same time, Father Corrin was in charge of this particular operation, so it wasn't like there was much of a choice either way.

XXX

Together, Alain and Father Corrin walked down the path, flanked by two of the four priests on either side. Alain could just barely make out the fields of grain moving slightly as the remaining two priests followed after them, stocks of their rifles tucked up against their shoulders.

"Be honest, Father Corrin," Alain said under his breath. "Do you all get odd looks, walking around town in vestments while also carrying guns?"

"Occasionally," Father Corrin answered, taking him by surprise. Naturally, he didn't elaborate any further on it, which caused Alain to let out a sigh.

"Should've figured that'd be the most I got…" he muttered.

The six of them eventually made it to the edge of the path, emerging out past the vast fields of wheat and corn. Before them stood a large wooden homestead; it was three stories tall and in far better shape than Alain would have expected a simple farmhouse to be. Not only that, but there was also a barn in the distance, some stables, and even a smaller house, no doubt intended to be used by whichever ranch hands were sharing the land with the owner. At the sight of it, Alain couldn't help but let out a low whistle.

"Someone's got money," he observed. "I take it this farm is pretty successful, then?"

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Father Corrin questioned in reply. "We checked the city tax records for this property. It hasn't reported a profit in years. But at the same time-"

"This place looks far too nice and well-kept to be at risk of going under any time soon, and the money paying for it all has to come from somewhere," Alain finished. Father Corrin nodded, and Alain's brow furrowed. He looked back to the farmhouse, frowning as he did so.

"The top two floors of that house are relatively new construction," he observed. "You can tell because the wood is a slightly different color on them compared to the ground floor – they haven't been weathered or aged compared to the ground floor either. The same goes for those stables, the barn, and the smaller house off in the distance – they all look too new and untouched to have been here for very long. My guess is that they were just built in the past few months."

"Which fits with the timeline of when New Orleans turned into hell on earth and the Veil was lifted," Father Corrin added.

Alain gave him a nod. "Well, this certainly seems promising so far, I suppose," he said. "How do we want to approach?"

Father Corrin turned his attention to the upper levels of the house, a scowl crossing his face as he did so. "That house has a wide field of fire over this entire part of the cornfields. If he's got people stationed at the windows, then we'd be sitting ducks if we approached from this side."

"Then we'll have to go around," Alain ventured. "But at the same time, if he's watching us now, he might get suspicious if he sees us heading away from the front of his house and towards the back instead."

"It's your call," Father Corrin offered.

Alain thought for a moment, then shook his head. "We should take the front," he said. "We've got your men covering us already, plus Az and Sable waiting on standby. I would suggest that you have your other two priests hang back as well, though. Let them hunker down in the fields; they'll be more useful there if we start getting shot at."

Father Corrin nodded in agreement, then motioned for the other two priests to head back into the fields. They both did as they were told, slinking back into the cornfields along with their two other brothers in arms. And once they were alone, Alain turned to Corrin, taking in a breath to steel himself.

"Okay," he said, "let's get this over with. Hopefully, they don't start shooting at us."

Father Corrin gave him a nod, and together, the two of them began to approach the farmhouse.