Fall to Grace Read online

  “A killer she may be,” Cameron said. “But she did help us at Sachsenhausen during the Second Great War. And Adriana personally saved my life during the Millennium Massacre.”

  Shealey turned back to the Concilium. “Forgive me, viceroys, but a situation has arisen that I must deal with.”

  Makeda smiled.

  Adriana.

  Downing nodded and waved a hand, dismissing Shealey. He hurried for the elevator.

  “So we should give the blood bag and her accomplice here a pass?” Negri asked, returning to the matter at hand.

  “Our Goddess is all about forgiveness and redemption, is she not?” Cameron countered.

  “But is Dupré, is Arsi, worth giving a cult of evil sorcerers the power to destroy Her world?”

  “And that is the question at hand, isn’t it, gentlemen?” Downing said. “Is the redemption of Adriana Dupré and the seemingly related death of our greatest enemy worth the loss of three Vyntari shards to that enemy’s organization?”

  “With respect, Viceroy Downing,” Negri began, “regardless of that question’s answer, can we allow Arsi to go unpunished for her unsanctioned actions?”

  Not quite the turn Makeda had expected.

  The elevator stopped abruptly.

  Adriana looked up, checking the floor numbers. Two were lit up, meaning she must have stopped between floors. Regardless, she was far below the floor she wanted.

  The vampire moved to the elevator doors, attempting to pry them open. Her burned hands made the task impossible. She then heard something land on the elevator car above her. Looking to the ceiling, Adriana saw the emergency entrance hatch open.

  Shealey dropped into the car.

  Adriana turned to face him.

  “The only way you leave this car,” Shealey began. He pulled his ethereal chain from behind his back and let its end clank on the metal of the car floor. “Is in chains,” he finished.

  The car began moving again.

  It headed down.

  “Why is it going back down?” Freeman asked over the phone line.

  “I can’t answer that, sir,” the guard in the security room responded. “But I just saw the guy who brought your friends in here climb into the elevator shaft.”

  “Ya know, despite liking Man of Steel, you’re good people,” Freeman said.

  “Hey! I liked Chris Reeve too, but we live in a different world now. Our heroes can kill when it saves lives.”

  “Where I come from, it takes a real hero to find the non-lethal solution.”

  “In the meantime, I’d just kill ‘em.”

  “Change of subject; how do I get into elevator control?” Freeman asked.

  “Try the maintenance network.”

  There was a silence on the line from Freeman. “Got it,” he finally said. “You know, you can get out of here, Angel. Promise Adriana won’t hit you if you go.”

  Freeman couldn’t see Angel the guard’s shrug. “I’m getting paid either way. And it’s not cool to have kidnapped people in the building. Even if they knocked my buddy unconscious trying to escape.”

  “Yet you haven’t called the cops,” Freeman said.

  “I have a feeling they can get out of it themselves,” Angel responded.

  “Heh. Yeah, Adriana and Makeda might just be a little Birds of Prey.”

  “That show sucked.”

  “The comic book version,” Freeman clarified. “Especially the Simone run. Now let’s see if we can’t get our version of Batgirl where she’s going.”

  “She seems more like the Huntress to me.”

  Silence from Freeman for a moment. “Yeah,” he eventually said. “You’re probably right.”

  Adriana instinctively remembered how to fight larger opponents. She’d make a quick attack, then back away while her larger opponent struggled to catch up to her rapid movements.

  The cramped space of the descending elevator prevented such an offensive. Instead, her style relied on feints and quick hits. He countered with brute force.

  Looking to shift the momentum, Adriana tried grappling with Shealey.

  At that exact moment, the elevator came to an abrupt halt.

  The sudden stop threw Adriana off balance. Shealey, seemingly unaffected by the car’s movement, took advantage of Adriana’s weakened state and slammed a fist into her stomach. The Knight was stronger than the guards she’d encountered earlier.

  The vampire stumbled to one knee.

  Shealey raised his hand to hammer down on Adriana, but the vampire rolled to the side, slamming her back against the side of the car. While Shealey readjusted to his opponent’s new position, Adriana scrambled to her feet and crossed the car so she stood behind Shealey. He turned again, but the vampire’s speed was too much for him.

  Adriana slammed her forearms down on both of Shealey’s shoulders while driving her knee into the back of his left leg. The Knight’s leg buckled. He stooped down to Adriana’s level. The vampire’s fangs extended. She grabbed the collar of his shirt, exposing the skin where his neck met his shoulder.

  Adriana bit down hard, drawing blood.

  Shealey grunted from the pain. He reached over his shoulders with both hands and grabbed the back of Adriana’s neck. He rolled forward, pulling Adriana with him. In the tumble, she lost her grip on the Knight.

  Shealey scuttled away from Adriana, slamming his back against the elevator car wall. He looked back to her.

  Blood — his blood — coated Adriana’s lips.

  Shealey touched his wound. He glared at Adriana.

  The vampire sat down with her legs crossed. She licked her lips and made no further move to resist.

  The elevator abruptly started again, moving back up.

  Adriana held up her hands, wrists together, in a sign of submission. “Take me to your leaders as a prisoner. I will not resist.” she said.

  “You’re beaten,” he replied. “You don’t get to make demands.”

  “I submitted. Now chain me and take me there” — Adriana’s submissive expression turned to one of cunning — “or I will get there myself.”

  Makeda didn’t look to the Concilium, but she felt Downing’s gaze on her.

  “What I’m missing from this, Makeda,” Downing said, “is your motive. You imply you did this to draw Thorne out, but you could never know for sure he’d appear. It’s more likely you were testing Adriana, trying to see if, as Viceroy Cameron suggests, you could persuade her to our side.”

  Negri cut in. “I must insist that the murderous blood bag and a hunch that Thorne would reveal himself is not enough to justify —”

  The ping of the elevator silenced those on the floor.

  The Concilium members looked past Makeda and to the elevator. Makeda did not follow their gaze. She knew they expected Shealey to return, and so he did, stepping from the elevator like a Roman returning from sacking Carthage.

  Shealey held a chain, swathed in ethereal white light, that stretched behind him. Tugging on it, he pulled Adriana from the elevator like a captured beast. She stumbled but kept her footing. The end of the chain bound her wrists. Shealey dragged her along as he approached the others.

  “How did she get loose?” Negri asked, his tone incredulous.

  “My apologies, Viceroy Negri, Concilium,” Shealey said. “But as you can see, I’ve contained the situation.”

  Shealey stopped abruptly. He was just in Makeda’s line of sight. Shealey tilted his head, shaking his head as if woozy. Touching the skin beneath his nose, he found blood. He brought that same hand to his forehead, holding it there as if checking his temperature.

  “Something the matter, Shealey?” Cameron asked.

  Makeda detected sarcasm in Cameron’s tone.

  Shealey looked to the Concilium. He blinked. Dropping the chain that bound Adriana, he rubbed his eyes and found his hands smeared with blood. His blood. Shealey looked to the other Knights as panic crept into his expression.

  “That’s enough, Adriana,” Makeda said.<
br />
  The Knight on trial turned her chair to look at Adriana. Though the Concilium members could not see her expression, Makeda still fought to conceal the smirk forming at the corner of her mouth. Adriana nodded slightly.

  Shealey blinked again. His vision cleared. The bleeding stopped, but traces of the substance stained his clothing, his face. His mouth, once open in shock, closed. His fingers curled into fists. He glared to Adriana, murder in his expression.

  “I remembered something from my time with the Daughters of Lilith on the way to the cathedral,” Adriana said.

  Shealey strode to a position in front of Adriana. Looking down at the vampire, he prepared to shout at her when Downing cut in.

  “As a patron of the arts,” she began, “I’m normally a fan of theatrics.” Downing waited until she had everyone’s attention. She then finished with, “This, however, is not the time.”

  Adriana dipped her head as a sign of deferment. She then raised her bound hands.

  “Shealey,” Downing said. “Release Mademoiselle Dupré. Then go clean yourself up. We’ll deal with your actions later.”

  Shealey began to speak, but Downing’s insistent expression silenced him. He sighed, then walked to Adriana and uncoiled the ethereal chains from her wrists.

  “That was for what you did to Gabriella,” Adriana whispered to Shealey. She then moved past the disgruntled, bloody Knight to Makeda’s side.

  Shealey took his chain and walked to the elevator. Adriana watched him from over her shoulder. When he was gone, she faced the three members of the Concilium, her head held up in defiance.

  “I do not know what you intend for Makeda Arsi,” Adriana began, “but you cannot excommunicate her.”

  “And how do you even know of this, blood bag?” Negri shot back.

  Ignoring him, Adriana said, “Her intentions were not evil. Removing her touch with magic would be too great a crime, despite the damage her actions may have caused your ridiculous Shadowdance.”

  “It is not your place to say anything,” Negri said.

  “She did make it this far,” Cameron countered.

  Negri motioned to speak, but Downing raised a hand, silencing him. She waved this hand at Adriana. “Say your piece.”

  The vampire looked down for a moment. When Adriana looked back to the Concilium, her eyes were full of passion. “After my resurrection in Oromia,” she began, “I returned with little memory of who I was. Makeda and Freeman have helped me put facts in place, but I still lack the emotional responses to those facts.

  “I do understand, though, that I have done many horrible things.”

  “To say the least!” Negri said, earning a glare from Downing. Shealey turned away from the Concilium as Adriana continued.

  “I seek redemption for my past sins. I would not have come to this decision if not for Makeda’s intervention. If she can convince one person to turn from the darkness, who are any of you to cast her out of the light?”

  “We were discussing something before your arrival,” Downing said. “Is saving your soul worth damning others?”

  “How many souls might I save?”

  “How many souls might you yet destroy?” Negri asked.

  Adriana’s jaw tightened. “I did not kill your man here. Nor did I kill the guards at my room or the Knights you sent to ambush me at the cathedral.”

  “Point taken,” Cameron said.

  Adriana glared at Negri. He did not wilt under her hateful stare.

  “Your change of heart does not erase the destruction of the Berlin Shadow Peace,” he said. “Nor has it found us the missing three Vyntari shards.”

  “I will find them,” Adriana said without hesitation.

  Her statement drew a laugh from Negri. “And how will you do that running around on holiday?” he asked.

  Adriana addressed Negri directly. “If trying to reclaim pieces of your soul is what you call a holiday, I suggest you never take one.”

  Makeda saw Cameron stifle a smile.

  Adriana turned back to all three Concilium members. “The only loss for which I cannot atone is the deaths of Denson and his pack. Their loss means more to me than it will ever mean to you and yours.”

  “How so?” Downing asked.

  “It’s complicated,” Makeda answered for Adriana. “And highly personal.”

  “As is this very tribunal,” Negri said.

  “Adriana is not on trial here,” Downing said. Looking at the vampire, she asked, “Will you avenge Denson and his pack, Adriana?”

  Adriana did not immediately answer. Her gaze drifted from those in the room. “In my past life, yes.” She looked directly at Negri. “Yes, I would have. I would avenge them with the same violence in which we lost them.”

  The vampire’s gaze shifted to Downing. “But that directive of violence is a part of me I wish to leave in my past. I would seek not vengeance, but justice.”

  “And what would this justice entail?” Downing asked.

  “Finding the sorcerer who slaughtered them, bringing his darkness to the light by giving him to whatever authorities oversee your Shadowdance.” Adriana looked back to Negri. “I would imagine that would also bring me closer to your missing Vyntari shards.”

  The room fell silent.

  Downing eventually said, “You present an interesting angle to this tribunal, Mademoiselle Dupré. Makeda engineered the entire Berlin and Oromia debacles to gain your trust. To follow your plan would require a trust in you we have no reason to allow.”

  She looked from Adriana to Makeda. “The question we must decide is, after your defiance of Knight code, can we trust you, Makeda?”

  Back in the apartment, Adriana pushed the balcony door. It wouldn’t open. She locked and unlocked the door, but it still refused to move.

  “Another trick some Knights learn is to seal doors magically,” Makeda said.

  “They learned their lesson,” Adriana said. She joined Makeda on the sofa. “The security guards in the monitor room,” she began.

  “The Knights own a few floors of this building,” Makeda explained.

  “So Freeman said. He also said those guards were not Initiates to the Shadowdance.”

  “Meaning they don’t know of it, nor the supernatural in general.”

  “And what will the Knights do when they learn one of the guards assisted me?”

  Makeda thought on this. “Nothing.” Off Adriana’s curious stare, she continued, “The Knights will use whatever resources necessary to make it as if this night never occurred. Should the guards get curious and investigate, they’ll find records showing the occupation of this room by some tenant for the past two months. No water damage, nor any damage, to the bathroom. Surveillance footage will mysteriously disappear.

  “Should the guards persist, they’ll find sizeable increases in their savings or children’s college funds that will convince them to stand down and accepted the altered reality.”

  Adriana relaxed. Makeda gave the vampire’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

  “You put in a great deal of effort to help me,” Makeda said.

  Adriana looked to Makeda. “You could say, in a way, I died for you.”

  Makeda was unsure if the usually sullen girl before her was making a joke or being sincere. As Adriana was not smiling, she decided to continue in seriousness. “That death was for you. So you could have a new life. One of your choosing, not the Daughters’.”

  Adriana studied Makeda. “You could tell me everything. About my life, that is.”

  “We’ve told you much. How has that helped so far?”

  The girl thought on this. She shrugged. “Enough to drive me, but there are still unmade connections.”

  “And together we will find those connections. But in time, so as not to overwhelm you.”

  “That is, if the Concilium decides to give us the time.”

  Makeda’s hand drifted from Adriana’s shoulder. She forced a smiled. “Well, there is that.”

  A knock at the doo
r broke a silence that had lasted nearly ten minutes. Makeda and Adriana looked to one another. On the other side of that door could wait the decision that would alter their lives forever.

  Neither woman expected Gabriella as the herald of such news. She wore a pained expression. Makeda and Adriana stood to meet her.

  “I want you to know that what I did I felt was the right thing to do, as per the Concilium,” Gabriella said.

  “I know,” Makeda began, but the younger Knight waved her off.

  “I felt that you cannot do what you want without the blessing of the One Goddess, and you get that through the Concilium. But today I understand more than ever what both you and Freeman tried to show me in Berlin.

  “The Concilium, the Knights, all of us — we’re only human. As such, the visions of the One Goddess can become perverted by human frailty. That in mind, I would sooner put my faith in your vision of the One Goddess.”

  Makeda approached Gabriella. “It is not my vision you should follow.”

  The senior Knight took Gabriella’s hands in hers and then placed them over Gabriella’s heart. “Trust your vision of the One Goddess. Do what is right by Her in your mind. That is the true lesson.”

  Gabriella bowed her head, thinking over Makeda’s words. She eventually nodded and looked back to Makeda. The younger Knight had tears in her eyes, but also the look of understanding. The senior Knight took her discipulus into her arms.

  “I’m glad you two worked that out,” came Cameron’s voice from across the room.

  The three ladies present looked in that direction and saw his image floating there.

  “The Concilium figured it best that I deliver the news,” Cameron’s image said. “Since Shealey will be busy retraining with Chigmy.”

  Makeda released Gabriella from their embrace. “Retraining?” she asked.

  “Shealey has lost his way,” Cameron replied. “He’s become far too violent, far too obsessive. Worse, he believes the ends justify his means. Unfortunately for him, he never succeeds. Unlike you, Makeda.”