Archbishop Lazurus read the missive once more. The letter bore dire news and re-reading one more time would do little to change its grim message and yet a grain of disbelief prompted the aging clergyman to run his eyes over the words one more time.

To his holiness Archbishop Lazurus,

It is with a heavy heart that I pen this correspondence. As you well know, one of my distant ancestors had returned from the grave after his demise as a foul vampire. Long did his descendants guard against his return after my great-great-great-great-great grandfather managed to trap him while he slumbered. Several centuries ago, he reawakened and continued his reign of terror in our humble realm of Latveria. Only a titanic battle with another of his kind ended his sovereignty over us. For generations, Latveria has lived in freedom from his curse and yet I fear that this freedom is soon to be lost. The sun failed to rise this morning. This heralds the return of the vampire lord Demitri Maximoff for so great was his power that he could deny the nourishing rays of the sun to his ancestral lands. In the hour I travel to his castle. Armed with my knowledge and my faith, I hope to destroy this blight on my land before he fully awakens. Should my cross and stake prove to be insufficient, I beg you to ensure that his evil is checked before it spreads beyond the borders of Latveria.

Yours in faith,
Mikhail Maximoff.

Archbishop Lazurus sighed and passed the latter on to his superiors. May the Lord grant them his wisdom, a Vampire Lord in this day and age! He had thought that the Church had extinguished all of their kind centuries ago. A few weeks later the good archbishop received a reply from his superiors. He swallowed once, hard when he noticed that the reply bore the crossed keys of Heaven and Hell that denoted the Papal seal.

"Faithful Lazurus, this letter does indeed hold grave news. I do hereby declare this Demitri to be an abomination and anathema to the faith. You are to mobilize any of our special assets as you deem necessary to rectify this situation."

Archbishop Lazurus looked incredulously at the Pope's instructions. What in God's name was he going to do about a Hell-spawned vampire? It was not like the Church kept Paladins on retainer anymore to vanquish such foes. Wait, there was perhaps one person who could be of help......

A few days later, Archbishop Lazurus found himself standing in the Vatican Airport awaiting the arrival of a very special girl. The Slayer. Only she among mortals could succeed at this task. Divested of his customary vestments, the archbishop tugged uncomfortably at his tie. He had never imagined that he would someday grow uncomfortable without the robes of his office.

As the flight from Sunnydale, Ohio touched down, Lazurus found himself beset by throngs of tourists who rushed out of the gate. A rather *ahem* healthy young woman walked up to him as he displayed his placard. "Hi, I'm Buffy Summers and I understand that you need a vampire dusted......"