Chapter 29

Strauss

M y angel,

Words cannot express what you have done to me. Maybe it's because I knew my time on this earth was done and my plans were coming to fruition. And perhaps it's because you saved me at the last moment. In more ways than one.

Whatever the reason, I love you. With all my heart and soul.

I've been planning the demise of Herodius and Clavius for twenty years. One of their sacred rituals is upon us today, and they'll be expecting my blood. And they'll get it.

But it also lives on in you.

The reason why I have chosen this path has always been for a sole purpose: revenge.

Then you came along and showed me that maybe this old man can feel things other than a simmering rage or the roaring agony of apathy. You were like a small reflection of me. Except your anger was always coupled with a sweet innocence that my mother ripped from me.

In the beginning, I wanted vengeance for her death. So I took it out on my father. Then, it was for the life they took from me, imprisoning me and making me their scapegoat. A name to do their bidding without lifting a finger. The others before me did it with joy, but I only wanted a way out.

However, once I learned what love genuinely is from you, then it was for a deeper purpose. My mother didn't love me. Not in the way she should. I understand that now.

Slyvious is small in number, but sent me resources in Dilan and Falcon. Others were sent to me to bring me a word of hope from them. They helped to cover some of my covert missions, such as ending the trafficking line for some of the women. I wish I had saved more.

Only I can make the sacrifice needed to save you and our child from the perils of this city. They want me. And you and our son were the only reasons I wanted to do this. But you changed me.

Now, I do it to set everyone free.

If I remain, so do Herodius and Clavius. If I run, they'll continue to haunt the city through subversive means, kill me, and my death will mean nothing. May as well use my end for good.

They are celebrities, school board members, judges, and politicians. Sunday school teachers, doctors, lawyers, and influencers. Their reach is deep and wide.

I'm only one person, but I can destroy the factions located inside Gnarled Pine Hollow.

And that's what I'm doing today.

I'm sorry for hurting you. Take care of our child. You have been granted everything in House Strauss. This is why YOU, my darling, are my ultimate weapon. You and our son will live on with my fortune and continue my legacy. Everything is yours. Let my loyal servant Sevastian have whatever he wants. Then he can go tomorrow, if he chooses.

If we were different people, had met at different times and under different circumstances, I would have taken you around the world. I'd meet you at the Crystal Maiden and make you mine the way a man should.

Maybe by giving up my life for others, I have a chance for redemption to meet you in Heaven where you belong. Until then, my soul will follow you and our baby to every corner of this world.

I love you, my angel.

Goodbye.

The doors are heavy. It's been such a long time, perhaps a full year, since I was in the Crimson Angel. It still smells of dust. And sin.

Dressed in full robes and masks, the owls line one half of the sanctuary and the Johns the other. Black and maroon part for my approach as I walk like a bride down the long aisle toward the front.

Someone murmurs that I am unbound. But I keep walking, hoping no one will stop me. Not yet.

When I reach the altar, I turn and face the crowd, but my eyes scan upward until I find Falcon's dark ones high above us in the balcony. She gives one tiny nod, then disappears.

A peace settles over me I haven't had since the night I first made love to my wife. I wasn't sure what I expected at my death, but the calm assuredness is a comfort.

One of the tuxedoed men and Amalthea rise from their pews and approach the pulpit, the John brandishing a knife and handcuffs. Edging as far away from them as I can get, my calves hit the edge of the large baptismal pool. We'd had it outfitted with a fountain, and the sound of trickling water makes my soul rest even more. As long as they don't touch me.

"Vladimir Vincente Strauss the third. The last of your name." A chuckle escapes from under the iron mask of the Clavius member. "Well…you will be once we annihilate the fetus inside your wife's womb. We'll marry her to someone appropriate, then impregnate her. Her Barrington blood will blend nicely with all of us as we take turns filling her with seed."

My eyes scan the numbers here. There could be five hundred. Maybe a thousand of them are staring at me with their flat eyes. I have no doubt they would rape her until she was almost dead, keeping her alive only until she could survive to give birth to their demon.

"You are aware of your crimes? Or should I go over them myself?" Amalthea speaks up.

Clearing my throat, I try to cover the chuckle released in a sharply exhaled breath. "Let me see… Not following your orders. Disobedient. Rogue. Did I not violate enough children for you? Or participate in your ridiculous blood sacrifices enough? Pray to your gods enough?"

As if offended, she snaps back, "We have no gods."

"You do. The god of self is the most destructive of all. And you worship at its feet daily with your greed, concerned only for what you most desire instead of focusing on the needs of others. No wonder you're so miserable and depressed. All you think about is your own pathetic selves . And you believe the way to feel better is to continue taking care of yourself! Trying to manipulate the world to get what you think you want. But it's never enough, is it? Chasing after a god with no form or substance. An ever-changing one that is never satisfied except with the want for more ."

I feel lighter than air as the silence rings through the chapel like a loud bell. Tilting my head, I almost wait for a reply. But their words are meaningless. Why consider them when these people aren't aware enough to hold any value? Automatons repeating back whatever their group echoes like loud crows.

Chaff. All of them.

So I step back onto the edge of the tub, reaching into my pocket just as a few men stand with guns pointed at me. But I've already depressed the button.

As the rock of bombs starts at the pillars in the back of the nave, I smile. Smoke billows through the room and everything flashes before me in slow motion. Crossing my arms over my chest, I fall back.

In a series of explosions, each set of concrete pillars lining the sanctuary detonates in sequence. Mid-air, I can see the plaster, concrete, wood, and dust cover the crowds screaming in panic. Then…the fire.

Blooms of heat furl out with rage, burning men and women alive. Their robes are quite flammable. And the comedy of their scrambling while set ablaze is the last thing I see before I plunge as a sacrifice into the pool behind me.

As the water surges over my stiffened body, I picture my love, my angel, my star, Astrid, and think,

I love you.