Made in Death's Image 03

Grace spat, "How kind."

Pavel ignored her tone, "I will acknowledge you have suffered. I will not waste that experience."

Grace listened carefully but was confused by his choice of words.

"I'm going to have your accrued life force and a century and a half of strength transferred into my own being. That way I may rule unchallenged. Any conflict against me would incur losses too great to be of value. The cold logical nature of our kind ensures that."

Grace couldn't believe what she was hearing. She never thought such a ritual to be even possible.

"This will come at the cost of your life but pay for the first of my revenges against this world of ours."

"You're a joke, Pavel." Grace hissed.

"A cruel one," and with that he turned to the door, "Judith! Begin the process immediately."

Judith Blackwell re-entered the room with the vampire guards. Judith began to continue the incantation, and the room began to subtly vibrate with deep and powerful magics. It made Grace feel utterly ill.

"Goodbye-" but before Pavel could finish a large explosion was heard that rattled the building and overpowered the meta-physical hum of magic.

******

The explosion rang out like a starting shot to a race. The vampires guarding the back entrances of the building moved away with shocking speed as soon as the explosion was heard. With that Michael and Ciel took their queue and ran to the back entrances of the building. Their entry was relatively unencumbered as they met no resistances. Lorenzo was even more correct than he projected. The untrained baby vampires lacked not only the training but the strict experience that Pavel did. Pavel was unraveling in ways he couldn't have imagined.

TWENTY-FOUR

"Bastard!" Pavel shouted as the shaking of the explosion subsided.

Judith looked to Pavel for consent to continue but before Pavel could answer she continued. Her incantation raised in intensity and Grace clenched the chair in a pain that now accompanied her nausea. Pavel watched Grace go through this ordeal and for a split second showed remorse at his actions before the joy of what he would gain overtook him. Pavel then left the room with some guards to go and secure the building. He would make damn sure he got the most of his empowering potion before it wore off.

******

Lorenzo was like a wraith moving through the clouds of construction dust and miscellaneous cover that surrounded the building's front lot. He had subdued quite a few vampires with silver-plated blades and killed the rest he couldn't subdue. But how much longer did Lorenzo have before he would be caught.

Suddenly more coordinated guards leapt from outside the dust cloud in. Lorenzo knocked one away with a punch before the other grappled him. He knocked it down with another strong punch. That's when a third guard rolled up and got Lorenzo with a running punch so strong it got him to roll. Lorenzo got to his feet quickly and ran up on the guard trying to get his step back. With a quick grapple Lorenzo was thrown to the ground again. The guard taunted Lorenzo but Lorenzo revealed in his hand a turquoise needle pulled from his vest. The guard panicked to run but with Lorenzo's superior age he caught up to the guard and pulled his head clean off with a vicious swipe of his hands. Lorenzo turned and was met with Pavel's fist breaking the entirety of his ribcage in a single blow. Lorenzo collapsed to the ground as if what animated his form was suddenly lifted from him.

"Pathetic," Pavel scoffed before going on to bark his new orders, "Men grab him and bring him with me. I need the building swept immediately while I secure my prize."

******

Ciel was a force to be reckoned with as she tore through what resistance they met in the building. Michael would have admired it given the time but truthfully he needed all his attention to deal with whoever slipped past his friend. Ciel's strikes and stabs ripped through her foes with the utmost efficiency a human body could against the mechanical refinement of her undead adversaries. Their experience being the detail that was allowing Ciel to dispose of them with such efficiency and what allowed Michael to hold his own with less grace. They made their way into the building until Michael came across a map of the building's layout.

Michael called out to a Ciel who was about to run off to find her next battle, "Wait! Map, we might be able to figure out where Grace is."

Ciel ran back to Michael's location in an adjacent room from one of the hallways they'd just battled in. She saw Michael standing and checking over a construction table. She approached and looked it over with him until they both pointed at the same room simultaneously and in unison they agreed; the 40th floor. It was 5 stories shy of the highest floor but it was the master conference room of the building. Michael pondered the irony of a former KGB spy to make his headquarters in a capitalist headquarters. But he'd muse on that after rescuing Grace.

"We get her and kill that son of a bitch Pavel." Michael uttered through exhausted breaths.

"Exactly, but be careful of a trap. They can only expect we'll be coming for her this way. If he uses that potion we are as good as dead, especially against those reinforcements." Ciel was less exhausted, but it was clear she was going to ration her strength for their final conflict.

*******

Ciel and Michael kicked down the door to the conference room Grace was in. She was groaning and growling with pain. The warlock continued her incantations despite Ciel and Michael's entry.

"Shut the fuck up right now!" Ciel commanded pulling a gun from the pack of her skinny jeans.

Michael followed suit but approached Grace instead. The entire time Michael made sure he gun was at a favorable angle to shoot at the warlock at any point. Michael approached Grace and reached out his hand, "Grace, I'm here."

But Grace continued to writhe and twist in agony as if the world was ripped asunder by pain for her. Her once pale skin now a bright pink caused my strain and pain. Her skin was sweating profusely. Something Michael never thought possible.

"Don't you dare touch her hunter." Judith commanded, causing the room to shake.

Ciel pressed the gun to Judith's temple. Judith glanced over furiously. Ciel retorted, "I wouldn't be making commands in your position."

Judith moved her vision across the room and suddenly Ciel was picked up off her feet and thrown into the metal wall frame of an unfinished part of the conference room. Michael turned his stance at the warlock but caught vampires beginning to move through the door at super speeds. Michael however was fast enough to shoot a volley of shots at the young vampires. The silver tipped bullets killed two and incapacitated the rest.

From Ciel's new found position on the ground she shot at the warlock and hit her in the side. This caused the incantation to stop almost immediately and Grace finally let out a blood-curdling scream as the pain came to an end. Michael ran over to her and used a knife to quickly cut her bindings. The warlock then used her telekinesis to flip Ciel into the ceiling and grab Michael and throw him through a glass pane and into the hallway of the other end of the conference room. Glass fell to the ground and Michael was slashed and cut seriously from his collision.

Judith collapsed against a wall but was luckily strong enough to stay standing with the support of the closest workbench she fell into subsequently from her wall collapse. Pavel then made his entrance into the room clapping his hands piously and victoriously. Ciel watched Pavel with concern in her eyes. Michael tried to get up from the mess of glass he laid in. He didn't even notice Pavel's entrance.

"I get to ring in my victory with so much violences upon my enemies." he walked over to Grace struggling with her one free hand pulling weakly at the other restraint, "What gifts you bestow upon me, Grace."

TWENTY-FIVE

Lorenzo was dragged in by the only other remaining guard on that floor of the building. Ciel looked at Lorenzo defeatedly. Pavel grabbed Grace by her short hair and looked her in the eyes with a malicious smile, "Now I've truly beaten you."

Ciel watched as Lorenzo quickly reached into his pocket and pulled the needle. The guard tried to stop what was going to come next, but it was all too late. Lorenzo had gotten himself in the leg with the needle. The guard tried to snap Lorenzo's neck but was flipped forward onto the ground and his arm pulled clean out of its socket and torn from his body in the most shocking regard. Pavel noticed this too late and let go of Grace.

Pavel ran at Lorenzo with a stomp and Pavel rose to meet it. They collided and flew through the wall behind them and back into that hall. Ciel could hear their battle but couldn't see it anymore as it began migrating. Judith wasted no time, and she had begun to chant again. Ciel pointed her gun at the warlock and the bullets were blocked. But with a moment of silence from her spell Grace had surprised Judith by freeing herself and smacking the warlock across the face. Grace walked over to Ciel to help her up. That's when they both noticed Michael and made their way to him.

Outside in the hallway Lorenzo seemed to have the under hand. He began to land stone shattering blow after stone shattering blow to a Pavel who began to slow down and weaken. Then suddenly Pavel lost piano wire from his sleeve. Lorenzo's arm was grabbed, but he managed to keep some semblance of control. But Pavel adjusted his approach and with his strength the piano wire sliced off Lorenzo's hands. Then Pavel used the piano wire on his neck and cut his handsome head clean off.

Pavel watched his opponent's body in two pieces collapse into a gooey mess. He turned his attention to his other adversaries again.

Grace helped Michael adjust himself before she smiled, "C'mon we are gonna leave ok."

Ciel did her best to help before she was grabbed from behind and thrown but far more weakly than before. Grace turned with an attempt to fight Pavel off but she was too weak. However Michael had a response, grabbing a piece of glass in his bare hands and stabbing Pavel in the calf. Grace took this to charge Pavel into another glass wall causing it to shatter.

Meanwhile Ciel stood ready to get involved in the fight but Judith herself had come to and cast a spell of shadows. They reached and grabbed and swiped at Ciel as she tried fighting them off before they pulled her down into the floor and dropped them to the level below. Ciel hit the floor on her feet and it broke her ankle. She released a flurry of curses at the sudden sharp pain and keeled over.

Grace and Michael had Pavel on the ropes as the drug further weakened his being. He was terrified as the couple passed him between them with a haymaker and threw Pavel between them with pushes and charges. Though both Michael and Grace seemed to also be at their limit as well. Each hit became weaker and slower. Then they all felt a hum in the building. Judith's incantations echoed from every corner of the building. Grace felt like a hand was in her chest pulling her soul from her very being. Every cell in her body radiated in pain. She fell to the ground and in the brief moment Michael turned to help her Pavel moved in to kill Michael with the piano wire. Michael caught it just in time with his arm in the way of his neck.

"I'LL SQUEEZE THE LIFE FROM YOU AS YOU WATCh HER DIE!" Pavel horribly.

Michael struggled and cried out fighting Pavel. But Pavel wasn't strong enough to even finish Michael off in this state. Pavel strained himself horribly holding Michael down as best he could. Judith collapsed onto her knees and Grace convulsed as an energy began to leave her chest. It was like an ethereal cloud of viscous red liquid like blood. Judith's incantations intensified as a thin stream of energy connecting the red glowing cloud of spiritual energy formed. The cloud itself moved towards Pavel and Michael as they struggled. Michael watched Grace's body go limp and weaken the farther the cloud went from her.

Michael headbutted backwards and broke Pavel's nose. The shock of the retaliation caught Pavel off guard and his grip loosened enough. Michael slipped free and pulled a silver tipped blade from his boot and stabbed it into Pavel's chest. Pavel weakly reached for the cloud as it approached. But before he could touch it the humming of the building stopped, and the cloud faded into the air. Pavel's eyes widened as he looked to see Judith collapse on the floor and die. Her eyes open and watching him hauntingly despite her being dead. Pavel's face contoured to a shape as if he were about to cry like a child wronged before he turned into a pile of sinew under Michael.

Michael stood and stumbled all in one motion as he approached Grace. She laid on the floor watching Michael. Her pale skin somehow translucent and her skin wet with sweat. Michael held Grace in his arms as she struggled to keep it together. There was a vacancy to her like someone on death's door.

"C'mon Grace- Grace stay with me. I'm gonna give you some blood. He raised it to her mouth to drink, but she seemed too weak. He smeared the wound on his arm on her lips to help but she didn't even try to lick the blood from her lips. She looked at Michael with weak and weary eyes. The look of death on her face made Michael tear up.

"Hello." Grace uttered in a pitiable tone.

"Hey," Michael said as he started to cry, "... Grace, don't leave me."

She smiled weakly and wheezed out, "I wish I didn't have to go anywhere."

Her delirious tone made Michael sob, "Please don't leave me too."

"I don't wanna leave the farm." Grace said as she started to look past Michael.

Michael shook Grace and started kissing her all over, "Stay with me baby please," he looked for reasons to keep her present, "I-I love your hair. It's new but you look so fresh."

Grace turned back to Michael and weakly raised her hand to hold the back of his neck, "I like it too," her hand weakened and went limp as it fell to the floor. Michael grabbed it hastily, Grace looked to Michael focused as possible, "I got to see you one last time. I-I needed to tell you- I love you and I'm sorry."

Michael kissed her a few more times still crying, "I love you too," he wheezed in pain, "Don't be sorry."

Grace's head turned away and Michael tried getting her attention by shaking her gently and repeating her name. Grace's eyes glazed over and she fell limp. Michael began begging for Grace to stay awake until it turned into incoherent wailing. Then Grace's beautiful form sagged and let go into a pile of sinew as she died. Michael's crying became horrific wailing as he held what was left of her in his arms.

"HELP!" He repeated in shrieks of pain.

******

Ciel pushed open the door of the service staircase and saw the pile of flesh that must've been Lorenzo. She winced at the sight before she started hearing horrible cries. It couldn't be any but Michael from how it sounded. Carefully she limped over to the hole in the wall made from Lorenzo's ill fated encounter. She saw Michael kneeling in a horrible pile of collapsed flesh and clothing. She realized it was Grace's clothing. All she could do was look on in horror and disbelief at the cost of it all. All this for nothing.

EPILOGUE

One month later

Michael stood watching into the night sky of the Manhattan bridge. It was frigid out in the December cold. Michael was holding in his hand a 64-floz beer can in a paper bag. His hair was a little longer and his face totally unshaved from the day Grace passed. It had been 3 weeks since the ceremony they called Grace's funeral had occured on a quiet hillside in Middle America. Michael wanted Grace to rest there assuming it was as close as he could get to her place of birth. Ciel and Franceska's words didn't soothe his sharp deep pain that day. Nothing soothed anything but alcohol for him at the moment and the following moments after. He went to Poppell where the Hidden received Michael like a hero. Something he didn't feel in the slightest. He should've been strung up by his entrails by Grace's followers for failing to keep his promise to them. It might have matched the pain he felt from losing her. Instead he promised to devote himself to Grace's vision of a haven for the supernatural during her funeral. He would rebuild the vampires here. He would rebuild Tartarus Market. He would fix everything Grace wanted to. Until the day he died even if he wished for that day to come very soon.

Michael took another sip of his beer, "I hope you trust me, Grace? I'll do all I can and rest in the future in the hands of those who think like you. Then I'll find you again soon."

The End