Gustave’s eyes shot open as he scanned the place he was lying currently, the last he remembered was the mother of all throat pains before fainting. He noted the ceiling and felt the cold hard floor pressed against back. He sat up as he felt something rolling around in his lungs. He leaned to the side and coughed a large wheezing cough as metallic stuff mixed with blood poured out of his mouth. He wiped the saliva on the side of his mouth before giving another long wheezing cough and again more metallic stuff and blood and came out. Finally he felt his throat and lungs clear, there was no heavy feeling in his chest and pain had reduced. He heaved a sigh of relief before wincing as pain shot through. He thumped his chest before coughing again as his eyes turned red and watered. Thankfully he wasn’t dead but it would take time to heal, he had tried defending Lady Magnier…Lady Magnier, where was she. His heart thumped as he stood up before nearly falling to his knees. A slender set of arms grabbed him from the side.

“Slowly Gustave,” said a gentle voice from the side, he looked and saw the lithe figure and beautiful face, his lady was fine, another worry of his extremely painful chest.

“Milady,” he choked out, his sound coming out in wheezes and rasps.

Roselyne winced at the voice, she had seen what he had spat out and deemed a guess as to what could have happened.

“He shot you didn’t he?” she asked.

Gustave paused and then shivered before proceeding to nod, “Fifteen bullets unloaded down my mouth.”

Roselyne winced again at the voice that came out, not at all like she was used to hearing from her chief guard.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” said Roselyne hanging her head down.

“Milady,” said Gustave in the grating voice, trying to stand upright. “You cannot be blamed, we severely underestimated this man, we didn’t believe he was as powerful as he was.”

“You are right,” said Roselyne nodding. “I had not thought he would have such strength, I had initially thought he might have been revived by a magician rather than being one himself, no signs pointed that way.”

“It was certainly a surprise milady,” he rasped. “He overpowered me quite easily if I go by the standards of the fight.”

“Me too,” she said. “I tried to test him and he struck me out cold.”

“We thought he was necromancer did we not milady,” said Gustave before wincing again as pain shot out, he took a seat down on the bed before taking in a slow deep breath.

“He was not,” answered Roselyne. “I shocked him and he jolted me with nearly twice the amount of electricity, I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

Gustave’s eyes widened, “He shocked you milady?”

“Yes Gustave,” Roselyne said nodding. “He is an electromancer.”

“That can’t be right!” Gustave suddenly stood up before falling into a coughing fit. “He *cough* *cough* can’t *cough* be a *cough**cough* an electrom*cough*electromancer.”

“What do you mean?” asked Roselyne gently tapping his back which seemed to help somewhat. “He used a lightning based discipline against me.”

“He beat me up,” said Gustave wiping the tears from his eyes and this time it was Roselyne’s turn to be surprised.

“He physically overpowered you?”

Gustave nodded at the question and Roselyne bit her thumb as she thought about it.

“Two disciplines,” she muttered. “That’s impossible, especially overpowering you physically after he put me out.”

“It is impossible milady,” he agreed.

“Well then, the question becomes how we have never heard of such a man,” said Roselyne thoughtfully. “Our information channels have not become so woefully inadequate.”

“It’s like he came out of nowhere,” said Gustave in a whisper.
Roselyne nodded, “He came back to life, took out five of Hector’s men, made them disappear, he counter-magicked me when I tried to shock him and he physically overpowered you, that’s at least three different disciplines, there is no way it makes sense.”

“He let us live,” Gustave pointed out, not that he was particularly grateful not when he felt like his insides had been pulled out ripped apart and stuffed back in.

Roselyne looked around the room very untidy with wrinkled nose before going over to the board of evidence hanging above the desk. It was details on the full moon decapitations, something she was very sure her community had to do with. This man appeared unassuming by all means, a proper police officer, a constable to boot. She sighed as she went over to the man’s fridge and opened it, finding nothing drinkable in there. She was thirsty as she ever could be and she turned to Gustave who sat on the bed looking down. Well it was the first time the man had ever lost so clearly.

“Gustave,” said Roselyne suddenly. “This man has nothing good to drink, no mineral water.”

“You are thirsty milady?” he asked and Roselyne nodded and he continued. “We have water in the car.”

“When will you voice recover?” asked Roselyne.

Gustave shrugged. “I can’t tell milady, my throat is burned and shredded, my voice box is not a box but rather a grater at this point with full of holes.”

Roselyne managed a smile at Gustave’s attempted humor.

“Very well then, let us get out of here, we have tested this man’s hospitality far enough, we need to regroup and find more information on him,” Roselyne said as she helped Gustave up. “Someone this powerful cannot be so unknown.”

She walked towards the door before pausing as her hand reached out and pulled off one of the sticky notes attached to the door.

[I don’t know who you are but I haven’t killed you yet…that should give you an indication, I am not an enemy…well not one you would want to mess with anyway, enjoy my room, leave when you want].

Roselyne scrunched up the note before frowning, was this man threatening her, there were few that had done that to her, none were alive to speak of the aftermath. She moved and snatched the other sticky note off the door.

[I hope you don’t mind but I’m taking your car as payment for sleeping in my room…and attacking me, it’s a very nice car…you’re really rich].

Roselyne’s eyes twitched as she looked at Gustave who smiled wryly as he patted his pockets and sure enough no keys turned up. She gritted her teeth, that man, not only had he knocked her and her bodyguard out but he had also stolen her car. She didn’t mind the theft of the car it was the act of the theft itself that bothered her. Such disrespect, she had never experienced such a thing in her life, she was duchess for god’s sake, she had a noble reputation. The least he could have done is ask for it, she would have willingly given it to him, if only for the sake of avoiding embarrassment.

“Milady…” Gustave trailed off as he saw Roselyne looking positively murderous.

“We will find him again Gustave,” said Roselyne quietly as he finger sparked, he winced as he was hit by a small jolt.

“Milady,” Gustave said again as he coughed twice, Roselyne turned around surprised then seemed to realize what she was doing.

“Sorry Gustave,” she said with a small smile.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

She looked at him frowning before gritting her teeth and then she spoke in the quietest voice possible, it was no more than a whisper, “Call a taxi.”

***

Jerome was enjoying his first time inside a very luxurious and opulent car, he was indeed even thinking of keeping it permanently against better judgment. He felt the air con was colder in such a nice car, more comfortable atmosphere as well, it was so very nice, so very relaxing. He followed the route set out by Eckhard to Bishop’s Bar and as he did so he looked at the knives in the seat next to him. He had Eckhard run through records on Hector Bishop using the new search parameters and it turned out that much like that noble lady before Hector Bishop was also an electromancer of all things, the man also ran one of the most successful contract killing businesses in Trade City East. One just had to pay a sum give them an image to work with and they would kill absolutely anyone and indeed they had a hundred percent success rate, killing everyone without fail…until him anyhow. He had killed five of Hector’s good men and the fact that the man hadn’t come in search of him already was a wonder or perhaps he had, that duchess and her bodyguard, they seemed pretty eager to hurt him, or maybe they were just testing him, he didn’t pick up any intent to kill specifically towards him but of course they had a sense of apathy towards life especially that woman. If he wasn’t wrong then he would most definitely meet them again, he had humiliated them sufficiently in their quests to do…well do something to him and with such a noble bearing he was decently sure she would come back if not for nothing but to get at least her car. He laughed at the thought, he would not give this car back, no he would be selling this right after its usage today, get the money and use it to buy a better house because right now the one he was living in was absolutely horrendous and his bank account barely had any cash though every month some money was being sent to some account in a bank in Austria, he was sure that was where this body’s original owner’s brother studied and lived, there was no picture of the boy though, not even on Jerome’s phone and he didn’t care enough about it or the boy to make it a point to find him. It was better if Jerome’s brother stayed far out of the way, he was no longer the proper Jerome anyhow and the boy could get caught in the crossfire when he went hunting after the people that framed him. He turned a corner sharply in the car overtaking two others that honked at him. He wasn’t paying attention as he cut them off when he crossed into the other lane, not that he cared, the car he was driving deserved respect anyhow. He drove one ignoring them and finally saw the sight he was eager for. Amidst a few buildings sat one taller than the rest, its luxury evident to everyone on the outside, it was in opposition what stood next to it, clean and pristine despite where it stood and at the top in a neon sign was the name Bishop. Indeed this was the building owned Hector Bishop, one of the few men in the high circles of Trade City East with obvious connections to nobility outside. The man was a walking structure of power, his roots ran so deep one would never be able to pull it all out despite trying their hardest and Jerome didn’t intend to curb the man’s power, if the man didn’t tell him what he wanted, he would simply kill him, that was it. He would have to be wary of the man’s electromancy though, he had already experienced it from that duchess and despite it only lasting for seconds before Eckhard countered it was nothing pleasant. However according to Eckhard, Bishop stood at a power level below that of Roselyne Agnes Magnier but Jerome was halfway sure that he or rather Eckhard had caught the duchess by surprise. Had the duchess been in her right mind, perhaps this story would have turned out entirely differently. He parked the car willy-nilly across one of the parking spots, covering two at once and he got out with his bag of knives. As soon as he got out he heard a honk from a car pulled over to the side. He looked to see a young man with piercings looking angrily at him from inside the car, next to him was a woman who looked slightly distressed. He walked over to the car.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“You’ve parked across two spaces, that’s the problem,” he said snarling.

Raising an eyebrow he looked back, indeed it was as the man said. He turned back with a grin.

“What about it?” he asked and then he looked at the woman, she was looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety…had he met this woman before.

“Pull your car out and park in one spot as*h*le!” he spat out.

“It’s a Rolls Royce,” said Jerome. “It can take as many parking spots as it wants.”
Jerome turned to walk away when the man suddenly opened the car door and came out but when he stood next to Jerome he suddenly realized he was at least a several inches smaller, indeed it was at this point Jerome noticed his own impressive height as he pulled himself up to full power.

“Do you want something?” asked Jerome, the man cowered for a moment before standing his ground, impressive feat, though Jerome. “There are plenty of parking spots everywhere, you park in one of those, I’ll keep my car where it is.”

“You-.” the man started but the woman had suddenly come out as well.

“Nick please…” the woman said, it seemed the woman had more wariness than this toddler that stood before him. “Let’s not pick a fight.”

Jerome flashed a grin at her before turning to the so called ‘Nick’.

“Hear what she says,” Jerome advised. “Take care of you business and leave mine the hell alone.”

Nick snarled as he came up and Jerome stepped up lightly bumping Nick as he staggered back and the woman came forward immediately.

“Nick,” she cried out holding his hand as he snarled and looked at him with proper aggression.

“I’m all eager for a fight,” said Jerome grinning sadistically, the grin seemed to have somewhat calmed Nick down as he grit his teeth.

“You-.” Nick started again before Jerome cut across him with a laugh.

“Park you car somewhere and go in to wherever you need to go kid,” said Jerome with a tone of finality. “You don’t want to screw with me.”

Nick tried to take another step forward but his girlfriend held him back, Jerome smiled at her courteously this time before turning on his heels to go into the club.

“You can look for the police if you’re not happy,” said Jerome with laugh and then he pulled out his badge. “I’ll be inside.”

The man, Nick seemed to freeze as he tried to sort out his emotions from anger to anxiety. The badge, it worked everytime, the community hear had some fear issues with the police it seemed, well it was not exactly the nicest of neighborhoods in the first place.

***

Hector Bishop had noticed the instant the Rolls Royce that had left his bar with confidence had pulled up. He was expecting happy news as he smiled, something which promptly froze as he saw who had came out of the car with a bag. His heart dropped, the man had found him as he always knew he would. Why, however, had he come in this particular. For a horrible moment he thought of the possibilities. It appeared Roselyne had paid this man a visit and this man had come with her car which then made it a possibility, a highly likely possibility that both Roselyne and her monstrous butler Gustave was dead, something he thought was an impossibility, clearly not to this man however. Jerome Elliot Hall was a painful conundrum for him and he was hurting whether he was on the defense or on the attack. How had he not noticed the power behind this unassuming constable before, he had seen Jerome talking with an upstart kid in the parking lot, just from the speech some assumptions were made. Jerome Elliot Hall had to be crazier than he was and the man had absolute confidence in his own strength. He had to escape, it was not safe for him here now that this monster had come in search of him. He walked to the side of the security room as a picture of Jerome’s face froze on screen. He tapped one of the men inside the room and then pointed to the picture of Jerome.

“Go, stop that man,” said Hector. “Try your best not to fight him, talk him down, if you can’t, then you know what to do, take your team.”

Hector even as he said this was fully aware he was sending this man to his death, five of his best were made to disappear from the face of this earth, both Roselyne and Gustave were, he assumed, dead but he needed to escape and if this man and his team could hold down Jerome if only for a second he would have a second’s worth of head start, something that was crucial for him. The man nodded, Hector did not wait to watch as the man gathered his squad and set out to intercept Jerome. He went to his room to grab his emergency stash and make a break for it. He adjusted his monocle as he keyed in the password to his room and entered as soon as he entered the lights flickered and he frowned. He went and touched the socket, trying to figure out what had happened, even a flicker of electricity would be far from a coincidence in his building. He went to his bedroom and opened a panel on the wall behind which was a safe. He grabbed a bag from the side and opened the safe after which he stuffed all the cash he had in there plus two guns into the bag. He then slid the bag over to his cupboard, a couple of notebooks containing his various dealings, he never kept anything digitally, it was all hard copies. He put it all in, these were records to be burned on the last tether, he needed to keep it with him. He also placed in a couple of clothes, plus another set of his monocles, he had grown rather attached to the accessory. He had everything he needed to make a quick escape when the lights flickered again, frowning he went up to touch the socket again, this time intending to do a detailed and thorough look through when he heard a scream down the hall and his heart dropped.

“Sh*t!” he exclaimed for first time in a year or so using unruly, rough words.

He ran to grab the bag when he heard another scream closer this time and he knew he was trapped. Jerome had made it all the way up here and was right down the hall blocking his only exit and presumably slaughtering his men. He sighed as he looked out the window, he could jump out, he wouldn’t die no doubt but was there any escape from a man who could come back to life and he had already, presumably, killed his two most powerful allies, Roselyne and Gustave. He looked at the other side of the room where there was a bar counter he quietly walked over to it, going around the side and he took out a whiskey and two glasses. Soon, as expected there was a bang on the door and it caved in with such ferocity he was surprised that room itself didn’t crumble and he gulped because behind the fallen doors, in the doorway stood a man. He would look as normal as anyone else if there wasn’t a bloody knife in his mouth as the blood dripped onto his teeth, creating a fearsome scene. In one hand he held a corpse and on his other shoulder there hung a bag, the front of his shirt was somewhat bloody and his eyes looked positively deranged. Those eyes looked around finally landing on him as a cold sweat dripped down the side of his forehead. He let out a strained a smile as Jerome came in dragging the bloody corpse with him and he spat out the knife. The man appeared to have come straight out of hell, following which hell itself had come to this world.

“Hello,” said Hector shakily. “Hector Bishop, at your service.”

“Hello there yourself,” said Jerome with a sweet bloody smile that put the fear of god in him.