Page 148 of Gates of Rapture
Endelle remained in her elevated position.She wouldn’t go near him until she was sure he was completely subdued.
At last, Greaves’s plated form floated on the surface, faceup.His eyes were closed.He was still alive, but barely.
Thorne, I need you,she sent.
A few seconds later, as he approached, she added,Not too close.She then explained about her acid-based, built-in defense mechanism.
He kept his distance.Glancing at Greaves, he said, “That explains the deep pockmarks and oozing blood.”
“I can’t believe he’s still alive.”
“What do you want to do with him?”
Endelle thought about summoning obsidian flame to make use of some serious hand-blast capacity and incinerate him on the spot.She also thought about having him tried for war crimes.
“Can we even contain him?”Thorne asked.“Or will he just dematerialize and go heal himself somewhere?”
A number of boats arrived.She glanced to her right and saw that the triad was in one of the foremost, all eyes cast in Greaves’s direction.Fiona had her hand to her mouth and finally looked away.
But it was Grace who called out, “Madame Endelle, would you consider relinquishing him to Beatrice?Can you give Greaves a choice?”
Grace was suggesting that Greaves be granted something he had never granted a single person whose life he’d been the means of ending.
Fury filled her.She wanted to pluck Greaves out of the water and continue to bathe him in acid until his flesh and bones were completely dissolved.
Behind her the sounds of battle had grown fainter and more distant.Thorne’s regiment had done its job.
She stared down at Greaves.She wanted him dead for two thousand years of misery that he had brought down on her, on her warriors, on all of Second Earth.
She lifted her wings and felt the perspiration forming once more.But Grace was suddenly in flight and hovering above Greaves.She called out, “I promised Beatrice I would try.Let Greaves go to his mother, to enter the redemption program.It will be punishment enough.Then he can become what he might have been if he had not been tortured and abused as a child.Please, Endelle, let Beatrice try.”
Endelle didn’t want Greaves reprieved.She wanted him to pay for everything he had done.
She looked at Thorne, but he just shook his head.Your call on this one,he sent.But you need to make the decision quickly.Every warrior here will want him dead.Soon, you won’t have a choice.
So this was to be her call.She had seen Casimir’s change.He was a new man, and his conscience would demand penitence for centuries to come.She knew that the redemption program was its own form of punishment that essentially lasted a lifetime because of the rebuilding of the conscience.
Greaves would suffer.
He was also beginning to recover.Greaves had powerful self-healing abilities.He began swimming to shore, lumbering through the water.She called out to the triad, “Once he reaches the bank, cast an energy field over him while I figure this out.Alison has that ability.”
As she pondered what had to be the hardest decision of her life, she watched the triad pull together.Only by shifts of shoulders and arches of necks could she see the early part of the process.Once Grace took possession of Fiona, the earth-based power rumbled and began to stream, a silver river of energy above them.
Greaves reached the bank and started to rise to his feet, even with all the deep pits and rivulets of blood.Fiona turned in his direction.The next moment he lay flat on the grassy bank, a beautiful gold, red, and blue field of energy pinning him down.
Endelle turned away from the flotilla, rising higher into the air.She needed to think.
The lake was full mostly of dead or dying death vampires.Colonel Seriffe and Thorne had trained the warriors well.
Even the Third Earth death vampires were dead.Santiago flew above their bodies.She could sense that he was stationed there to make certain they didn’t have an unknown power to rise.If any of them did, he was ready with his ruby dagger in one hand and sword in the other.
The rest of the sky was full of Militia Warriors patrolling back and forth.Occasionally she could spot her Warriors of the Blood.Just a few knots were still battling over the lake far to the south.
Retrieval boats zoomed past below, and by order, Militia Warriors flew down to escort them in case any of the death vampires in the water weren’t really dead.
She began to feel weary in her new form.Of course all her battle adrenaline was gone.She even felt a pressing need to get to solid ground and morph back to her ascended form.
She returned to Greaves’s position, created some mist, and went through another painful morphing process.
