PART 14

Mordre Finale

"Wha’cha ya got, Max?" Michael looked over at his partner reading reports handed to him by the secretary.

"Nothing came back so far on the possible other killings. Information Systems is linking it to the National Crime Database, and running specifics to anything similar to our crimes. They predict having a full run by late this afternoon, but currently there are no known murders in the state of New Mexico matching ours." Michael was disappointed. He had trusted that Maria was correct, and they would find more.

They had left Maria and the others working at the Loft. Sean was currently running the Professor's family background again. He looked paler than the day before. Michael caught him vomiting in the men's room earlier and almost suggested he go to the doctor or stand down. The look Sean gave him made him swallow his suggestion.

Maria had told him that Sean suffered from ulcers since he was eight years old. Living and growing up in the DeLuca family wasn't exactly stressfree. In addition, over the past few years, Sean didn't avoid behavior to help the situation. Living in Vice, drinking, occasionally smoking, and late nights with little to no sleep was wearing him down. Michael was hoping that they could solve this case before the man perforated his ulcer. The vomiting of blood wasn't a good sign, so they were running out of time in more ways than one. It was obvious that Sean wouldn't step down until the bitter end, and Michael wasn't looking forward to having to report the problem to Cap.

"You need anything, Sean?"

"Yeah. You to f-uckin' back off!" Sean coughed and spit more blood into the sink. He looked over and cussed at the look on Michael's face. "Don't even think it, Guerin. I'm taking my ulcer medicine, okay! If we don't get a break in the next twenty-four hours, I'll call and take myself into the hospital. Okay?" Michael just stared at the man. This was insane! He should put the man off-duty for health reasons. Sean watched the chasing emotion and knew what Michael was thinking. "Michael, look, I know it looks bad, but I've lived through this a few times. I know what I'm doing. I can't step down! Not now."

"Sean..."

"Michael, please? I'm feeling this too closely. My family’s involved. Maria. She's...she and Amy....they're all I've got! The rest of my family pretends I'm dead. I can't fail them this time, so don't do this to me." Michael sighed. This was bullsh-it, total bullsh-it. He meets a painintheass woman who makes his life nothing if not interesting, and with her comes all her painintheass family and friends, and now here he was making decisions he knew he shouldn't make! Dammit, what the hell was going on? He was definitely losing his edge.

"Okay, you've got twenty-four hours, and no more. I find you puking your guts up again, you go immediately, even if I have to drag you there myself. Is that clear?" Sean looked at Michael and nodded. "Don't f-uck with me Sean! I'm calling your aunt if I have to!" Michael smiled evilly at the rush of terror crossing Sean's face. Damn, that Amy DeLuca was tougher than even he was! She could strike fear with just the mention of her name.

"You're a real bastard, Guerin. You know I almost felt sorry for the hell my womenfolk were going to wreak in your life, but now....now I think you deserve it! Heartless bastard."

By lunchtime they had cleared all possible places the Professor could have stashed the armor, with no luck. Max, Sean, and Michael split up the Professor's neighborhood and did interviews with his neighbors. They were trying to determine if the Professor had more visitors than usual or anything unusual happened over the past few months.

They decided to swing by the Loft and check on how the rest of the investigators were progressing. Michael suspected that this plan was more oriented around the fact that Maria had probably ordered food for everyone, and both Sean and Max were starving. His suggestion to hit a greasy burger joint fell on deaf ears, so they made their way uptown.

Michael told Sean if this kept up long they were going to have to stop by the finance office and pick up a requisition form to put in expenses for the case and get Maria some of her money back, since she was paying for all the food. Sean just gave him a strange look and shrugged.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Guerin. Maria will let you know if she feels the need for compensation. I think she sees this as doing her part for Chris, Janhie, and Dianne, so let's just let her do what she wants." Michael just nodded, but still worried about them eating through Maria's money since she was currently on a leave of absence.

When they got to the Loft, it appeared that both Max and Sean were correct. Maria had arranged for the delivery of food from a local sandwich shop. This time they sent all the sandwich stuff, a supply of bread, and spreads. The workers were busy making themselves something to eat. Both Sean and Max hurried over to help themselves to food while Michael went to find Maria. She was outside in the garden talking on the phone.

"Okay, no that's fine." Maria paused when she heard the door open and turned to look at Michael, smiling she gestured him to wait. "No, really mom, I understand. I promise! I'll keep and eye on them, especially Kyle and Tess. No, I'll call her doctor myself! No! Really mom, I swear if it was serious I'm sure Tess would mention it. No, I promise, and if it's bad I will personally see she is put at the top of a kidney list...mom, I don't think you need to donate your kidney! No, I'm positive! Okay, okay...yes, yes...go save those birds! Yes, love you too! Bye." Maria quickly disconnected.

"Your mom?" Michael went over to invade her personal space.

"Um, huh. She's on her way to some wildlife refuge to protect the unprotected, to save a mountain, and to harass park rangers." Michael nodded his approval. From what he heard about Amy DeLuca, the farther she was away from this mess, the better.

"Are you okay with that?" Michael took her into his arms and smiled when she put her arms around his neck.

"Oh, definitely okay with it." They looked at each other for a long silent moment and then Michael closed his eyes as her mouth came closer to his.

Max looked up to ask his partner if he wanted something to eat. Not finding Michael anywhere, Max finally located him outside in the garden kissing Maria. Max cussed under his breath and looked away. These two were slowly driving him crazy! First they woke him up last night when they were making love, which didn't end anytime soon, but add that to the interrogation room, and Max was finding himself...unsettled.

Monday he had followed Michael to Interrogation Room Four. He was worried that Maria wouldn't be able to calm Michael down. Going into the dark room behind the two-way glass, he had stood stunned at seeing the two of them together. After remaining there longer than he should have, Max rushed out of the room and stood outside the closed door, red-faced. He stayed there for a while to make sure no one else entered the room, until finally he took himself off to the nearest bathroom.

More than one person had noticed the couple leaving the room, how messed up they looked, and it was hard to not notice the improvement in Guerin's attitude. Max ignored all the different people who wanted to know what happened between the Cap's daughter and Guerin. It became a hotbed of discussion. Michael just ignored the looks and whispering. Max was the only one who appeared embarrassed.

Max could have taken their relationship better if it wasn't for the sheer volume of sexual energy they seemed to generate. It was daunting to feel the magnitude of it, compare it to one's own life and find it sadly lacking. When Liz came over to talk to him, it took Max a few moments to notice her.

"Max?" Liz frowned and followed Max’s glance. Michael and Maria. That seemed to be everyone's favorite topic. Was hard to miss how close the couple was, and the entire PD was interested in the affair, already placing bets on how long it would last. Liz put money on marriage. As far as she could see, the couple looked like they were heading for the long haul.

"Sorry Liz, did you need something?" Liz frowned at his distracted tone. She was used to him paying her more attention lately, but over the past few days, he seemed almost not to notice her at all. It depressed her to no end that he didn't seem interested.

"I'm almost done organizing the request forms. The mailroom at the University is sending their duplicate delivery forms, and Eddie has a lead on the missing dagger. The University in New York is going to call us back later this afternoon with information. It appears the dagger had been in their collections since the 1950's, but they lent it out five years ago to a Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The director of the Museum in Milwaukee has yet to return our call."

"Okay. How are Cassie and the technical support team doing?" Max turned away from watching Michael and Maria and turned his attentions to Liz. She looked different somehow today. Red. She was wearing red.

"They're still finding more accessible articles, but nothing that can give them a detailed list of the witch's potion. So far, the best they could find the same list of ingredients that we already found. Something interesting though, Eddie found some references to the theory that the blood bond between the Praetorian soldier and Dru Rhiannon was timeless. It suggested that the two were reborn or reincarnated endlessly until in one lifetime they find each other, and do not betray one another. Maria thinks it's a bunch of hogwash. Her words, not mine!"

Max frowned at Liz. "So maybe our killer thinks they are the reincarnation of the Praetorian soldier or even the witch. Maybe they are trying to initiate the spell of power to find their "soulmate", or to vanquish them."

"I don't think a "soulmate" would do that much harm to their eternal mate. They should recognize each other from the moment they meet, and against all odds should try to remain together." Liz hated that her own sister had felt that she found her soulmate and it had cost her her life. However, this story was a timeless one, repeated endlessly with famous couples in history that ended tragically. The theory itself was utterly romantic.

"It's just a legend. God, we've got a real whacked person if they believe all this drivel!" Max turned to look at Cassie when she came over. "Cassie, do you have enough of a support team here, or do you need more?"

"I think were doing fine. The support teams are leaving by four this afternoon to take the manuscripts back to the PD. The graduate students are pretty much through all the information they can find. So by this evening, we should be down to a more manageable skeleton crew." Cassie passed Max a few sets of papers, one with the legend printed out, the information obtained today, and finally the known witch's potion. "This is all really romantic stuff, but most legends are."

Sean came up to them, drinking his soda. He smiled at Cassie and then acknowledged Liz. Both women frowned at his physical condition.

"Sean? God, are you okay?" Liz looked at him with worried. He was very different from the physically fit man she first met in his boxers a few days previous.

Cassie also looked concerned. "Liz is right, Sean. You look terrible. Don't tell me you're still hungover from the other night?"

"No, more than likely it is my ulcer acting up. Don't worry, as soon as this case is over, I'll take a few days of downtime before returning to Vice." Sean smiled at Cassie with a twinkle in his eye. "I take it you sprang back from too much Tequila?"

Cassie laughed at his question, and pushing her arm through his led him away from Max and Liz. "Don't think I didn't suffer! It took me almost two days to feel good again, and the day after I thought I was going to die!" Cassie reached up and pushed her fingers through his hair. "I think the next time...we should definitely get more than two hours of sleep, and maybe save it for a day when we both have a day off the next day?" Sean laughed at that. Hell, next time? Right now, that seemed like a long time down the line before he would be fit enough to consider abusing his body again, or letting her abuse him. Sean laughed louder when Cassie patted his arm and walked off saying the one thing guaranteed to make him spit out his drink. "Just don't lose the present I gave you, and next time...lets add in your handcuffs. They're so much harder to get out of than those leather straps."

Max, Michael and Sean left them early in the afternoon to chase down a few other leads including a storage facility that Professor Kovitch had rented two years previously for old family furniture. They spent two hours searching through the bin, going through the wardrobes, drawers and chests. Michael looked through a stack of old family photos and felt the lack of real family in his life. Kovitch came from a very rich background.

Even adopted, Mikey was literally his only real family. Mikey had been an only child, and both his parents had been alone. His grandfather had died in the Second World War, and all his siblings were long since dead as well, some dying in a tuberculosis exposure in the late forties. Mikey had been married for almost eight years to his childhood sweetheart, but she died in childbirth, and that was years before Mikey found Michael. They had only each other, and when Mikey died, Michael was alone again.

Michael couldn't imagine having so many people in his life that belonged to him. Putting the old photos back, one caught his eye. Looking at the picture of the young woman in black and white, only about sixteen, Michael turned it over and read the name. Rachel. Grabbing his report he searched through the fact sheets, he had on Kovitch and located the name. She was Kovitch's youngest sister, born after his family had come to America. There was no information on the young woman because she died at an early age. Michael looked at the picture again, and then slid it under the paperclip on the Kovitch report. The picture bothered him, and eventually he would figure out what it was that drew his eye.

Michael looked at both Max and Sean. "Anything?" Both men shook their heads no. "Well, this was a long shot anyway. We could hope that the Professor had stored or hidden the armor, but I think be can safely assume that the killer has it, and it’s the dagger that's missing." Michael rubbed the back of his neck. F-ucking Excalibur . What next? The Holy Grail ? "Lets head back to the Loft and see if there's any information available yet on the dagger."

The group at the Loft had dwindled since the lunch hour. Maria was busy on the phone talking to a Director at a Museum in New York City. No notice of the dagger being lent out to anyone but the Milwaukee Museum, and she was still waiting to hear from them. The Director's secretary informed them that the Director was in budget meetings all day, but would call before leaving that evening.

Cassie and Liz were busy discussing the case and the person who had to be involved. The men joined them and waited for Maria to finish the phone calls. Dusk was already falling. The evening skies had darkened, and it looked like rain.

When Sean's cell phone rang, they all sat quietly, waiting to see if it was new information. It wasn't. It was about Pierce.

"Snyder got a tip on Pierce." Both Michael and Max sat up straighter. Pierce, their cop-killing bastard that they had tried to arrest for six months.

"What's going down?" Michael stood up. Max followed, and Maria frowned as Sean got up and reached for his jacket.

"Word is that is he moving a load of designers or cocaine tonight, that his own trucking fleet is on the move. Snyder's snitch says that there activity down by the loading docks of International Trucks, and those docks haven't been used in about three years." The three men suddenly moved together as one. Max pulled his phone, placed the call for riot teams, and talked to Cap.

On their way out the door, Michael turned back at the three silent women. Swearing under his breath, he stopped and detoured back to Maria. Reaching down he tilted her head, and kissed her passionately before resting his forehead against hers.

"You're to stay out of trouble until I get back. Is that understood?" Maria nodded silently, her hands clutching his shoulders, not wanting to let him go. Reason and rational thinking finally found a way inside, and despite her desire to ignore it, she finally stopped clutching him.

"I promise to go nowhere without Liz and Cassie. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Maria looked at him with clear green eyes filled with worry.

"No, what I want to hear is that you will stay out of trouble, and try not to worry. I promise to be back as soon as I can." Michael kissed her again quickly. "Promise me!"

"I promise, if you promise to come back."

Michael smiled at that. "I always do."

"Okay. Go get your bad guy." Maria watched Michael turn to leave when a thought occurred to her. "Hey! Detective! Do you wear those cute dark blue riot uniforms with Kevlar bulletproof vests?"

Michael looked back at her and nodded. Maria smiled wickedly and Michael could almost feel the sweat break out on his back. "Yeah, why?"

Maria grabbed him back to her, and pulled into a long deep kiss whispering not too quietly. "Ooooh, wear it home!"

Max and Sean literally had to tear Michael away from her. Once they were on the way to join up with the rest of the team, Michael rubbed a hand across his face. Looking at Sean's silent face, and sighing, Michael just had to know.

"She's going to be the death of me, isn't she?"

Sean looked at Michael and shook his head. Some men were just too slow. All Sean could say was, "Dead man walkin'." He turned back and looked out the window, mentally getting ready for the coming bust and trying to quell the rocking acid motion of his stomach.

"I was afraid of that."

Cassie continued to work on the computer as Maria and Liz continued to sort and compare the duplicate copies of delivery receipts to the ones from the Museum. Liz had generated a list, so they were checking off the ones that the mailroom had, compared to the ones found at the Museum. The phone rang, and Maria was quick to answer. She was both hoping it was Michael-and afraid it would be about him.

"Hello?...Yes, this is Professor DeLuca." Maria paused and listened. "Dr. Whitaker! I can't thank you enough for returning my call so late in the evening." Maria looked at the clock. It was seven p.m. in New Mexico, so that made it eight in Milwaukee. "Yes, the Caliburnus is the artifact I am trying to find." Maria stopped and listened. "I see! And it was shipped when? At Professor Kovitch's request?" Maria frowned taking her list of artifacts requested, sent for, and received. Reading the entire list for the hundredth time, she wasn't surprised that the dagger was not on the list. "No, I understand completely. No, sir, I promise that I will be reporting the theft immediately with both the Police and the insurance company. No. That won't be necessary. I'll be in touch...."

Both Cassie and Liz listened with interest. They waited as Maria finally hung up the phone and took a stack of delivery receipts from Liz's pile. Maria searched through all the stacks of partial pieces of triplicate forms consisting mostly of white and yellow. The delivery receipts were in three colors. White was the main receipt, which was filed, the yellow was given to a special auditor in the finance department to send information to the insurance company and have the item placed on the insurance, and the pink copy was given to the department after the receiver of the deliver signed the copies.

Maria found one copy. A yellow copy, the one sent to the finance office. The original request form, the requisition form, and shipping and delivery forms were missing. The mailroom’s copy was also gone. It was by luck only that the yellow copy still existed. Maria looked down at the signature. Tess Hardy. Showing it to the other two, Maria quickly picked up the phone and called Tess at the Valenti's house.

"Tess? Oh, hi Kyle! Look, it’s Maria. Can I talk to Tess real quick?" Maria stopped and listened as she heard Kyle scream through the house for Tess to get the phone. "What? Yes, yes I know! She called me earlier today to tell me she was going. Oklahoma will never be the same! Absolutely!" Maria laughed when suddenly Tess came on the line. "Tess! I’m so sorry to be calling so late. What?" Maria laughed. "No, I have no doubt that Kyle is a remote hog. Eww! No way! That is too cliché male. No one really watches ESPN twenty-fours a day. No, I refuse to believe...." Maria looked over at Liz and Cassie, and suddenly remembered why she called. "Tess, sorry, I just needed to ask you a quick question. Do you remember receiving a delivery almost two weeks ago? It was a late Friday delivery....for the museum."

Maria stopped and listened to Tess for a moment. "No it would have been the Friday before Chris was killed." Tess was trying to place the date when suddenly it hit Maria. No wonder the killer targeted Tess! They had removed all evidence that the dagger was ever requested or received by the museum, and they removed the white copy from the mailroom, discovering that Tess was the receiver. But they had missed the yellow copy, because that copy had been sent to the financial officer! "Tess, no I remember now, too! Yes, I know where it is. Okay, no you rest. I'll talk to you later. No, I promise."

Maria disconnected and looked at the other two women. "We need to go!"

Liz looked at the determination on Maria's face. "Go where? Maria? Where are we going?"

"The University. I know where the dagger is." Maria rushed to pick up her coat, hurry around the place checking the doors.

"No we're not!" Maria stopped and looked at an angry Cassie.

"Excuse me?"

"We're not charging off all alone in the night. Michael would kill us, and..."

"Look, I know what you're going to say! I realize this is foolish, but in truth, I've had this object in my possession for almost two weeks! I didn't even know it, and it's cost more than I can ever begin to measure. I want it found and taken to the Roswell PD. Now!" Maria pulled on her jacket, and pulled out her keys. "I can't wait another day, another hour, or even another minute. I have nothing left in my life worth losing over this, and I don't want to lose this to the bastard that took Dianne and the others. I refuse to let them win. Therefore, you have two choices. You can come with me and protect me..." Maria tried not to scoff at the idea that these two small women could protect her. "Or you can leave. Either way, I'm going to my office."

"Maria, I've been through your entire office. There was no delivery there." Liz grabbed her coat from the sofa. She doubted she could stop Maria, but she would be in hell if she explained to Michael how she let Maria go alone.

"Wrong office, Liz. Wrong office ! The damn delivery was delivered to the wrong place." Maria headed for the door with Liz and Cassie on her heels.

Michael pressed up against the building, cussing softly under his breath. Where the hell was Max? Peering in the new darkness as the day slowly moved to night, his vision made worse by the closed condition of the warehouse they were moving through, Michael searched for his partner. He could see Sean cautiously working his way along the other side.

Waiting for a small count of ten, Michael deployed forward again, trying to keep an eye out for his partner. The Roswell PD riot and SWAT teams were slowly moving through the warehouse, surrounding a centrally lit area. Michael found his position and stopped to gather his bearings. A movement along his back and a hand on his shoulder alerted him that his partner had caught up to him.

Michael quickly gestured to Max on the condition of deployment behind him. Max quietly motioned that in three minutes the rear would be in place. Looking up, Michael checked the upper support beams and catwalks about the upper light matrix. He saw two team members settle into place. Finally checking the opposite side, he motioned to Sean who responded with an all clear and set signal.

They entire crew settled into the silence once they were completely in place. Michael looked out of the darkness at the lighted work area where three men in white lab jackets were chopping crystal white coke into commercial portions. The drying trays where filled, and one lab technician kept checking the purity of the mix. Michael could smell the ether in the air and shook his head to clear it. Looking at Max, he noticed his partner was also feeling the effects of the chemical. Damn, it sucked being them some days!

The noise of new people moving into the work area alerted the team that the time to move was upon them. Michael frowned at the new voices, trying to distinguish the tones into clear words. A large group of men looking like teamsters showed up, and one expensively dressed man stopped to talk to the main lab worker.

".....I don't care. The stuff was supposed to be processed and packaged, ready for transport."

".....the heaters aren't drying fast enough...."

"Do I look like excuses are what I need? I have orders to fill and if this junk isn't loaded within the hour and moving, I can't make my deliveries. That's money wasted, credibility lost, and bad business!"

"...Look I told you...we can't cook any faster. If we turn up the heaters too high it will burn the batch and set the ether in the air up in flames...."

The suit calmly opened his cell phone and handed it to the lab man, watching smugly as the man stepped back from the phone. "Perhaps you would like to explain to the boss himself what the delay is?"

"Sh-it, no!...um, wait...I can have it done..." The suit pushed the phone in the man's hand and walked off to check the operation staying clear of the bright drying heaters and lights. The fumes were lethal from the processing of cocaine. He could hear the man whining in the phone. He made eye contact with one of his men, the one who was holding a phone to his ear. The man closed the phone and nodded.

Turning around, the suit took out a gun and looked the lab technician in the eye, and with a cold nod of his head, shot him in the forehead, dead center.

Turning to the other workers who dropped under the drying tables at the sound of the gun, he found the dead man's partner, another chemist, happy to trade his talents for a big payoff. "You're in charge now...get it dried and packaged....fast! Or..." The scared man looked down at his dead partner and best friend and nodded quickly.

The suit looked at his man and told him to get the processed junk loaded, now. Critically it looked like about eighty percent of the cutting and processing of the raw product was complete, but the other twenty were in the drying trays. "Get the ready stuff loaded in the trucks, the rest will be ready soon. Go." His cell phone rang. The man calmly reached down and took it from the hand of the dead man using his foot to push his body away.

"Sir." The man listened to the voice on the other end, and Michael leaned up against the crate he was behind next to Max and listened. Pierce wasn't on site, his front man was. "Yes, sir...operation is back underway. There is over eighty percent ready, but the other is drying. No, the place is set...sir." The man hung up looking decidedly sick. It took another thirty minutes as the loaders started packing away the cut smack, and the suit looked menacingly at the chemists.

A large ruckus started from the back of the warehouse and moved forward as a large group of men in suits came into the lighted area. The central man was a tall dark-haired man with sunglasses covering his eyes. He looked at the surrounding area with an overwhelming intensity, his eyes scanning the darker areas. Pierce. It had to be Pierce. No one really knew him or could describe him, and even as Michael viewed him, the man continued to turn his head making it impossible for Michael to get a real clear view of the details of his face. Suddenly the man turned and stared in the direction of where both Max and Michael were in position, and turning back, he drew out his gun and shot the original suit.

Turning again, the man shot three of the men that had arrived with him, and then in almost slow motion, he reached into his pocket took out a cigarette case, lit one and looked toward Michael's position again....and then with a flick of his wrist the man tossed his lit cigarette into the manufacturing area. Michael watched the cigarette in horror, seeing Sean and the others quickly diving for floor, Michael pushed Max over and hit the deck himself.

The ether ignited and the resounding explosion sent a percussion wave followed by a full bank of fire over the room. Michael and Max kept their heads down as the force of the explosion forced the glass in the warehouse to explode in a raining of glass. When the wave front of the explosion passed, Michael was quickly up with his gun drawn, as was Sean across the way. Michael surveyed the damage cussing the entire time. The chemists were all fried, and five dead men lay on the floor. The cooking drugs had exploded into a cloud of airborne death. Michael could feel the hot particles on his skin, trying to make its way into his lungs. Grabbing his partner, he pushed Max out of the room, as Sean and the other quickly followed with the fire raging behind them.

The group of them huddled around the support vehicles and ambulances as firefighters rushed around trying to control the fire before it jumped to other buildings. They were all wearing masks to protect against the cocaine cloud covering the area inside. Both Max and Michael were sucking down oxygen at the paramedic’s area while Sean was washing out his mouth and cleaning his eyes. Michael could feel his eyes burning. His nose, and his throat felt like someone had stripped it open. Taking a bottle of water he rinsed out his mouth for what felt like the hundredth time, as Max let a paramedic wash out his eyes.

Sean was cussing a solid stream of obscenities that had Michael impressed. Both Michael and Max held out their hands for money from Sean, when the man saw their hands he cussed even louder. "Back off! I'm not the one trying to clean up my f-ucking language, there's nothing wrong with my god damned expressions, so..."

Both Max and Michael started to laugh between the coughs. Michael frowned at the chaos. It was another Pierce bust gone bad. What the hell happened? Pierce...he knew. He just knew that the place was swarming with cops, and specifically he knew where Michael and Max were, that they were there. How?

The Captain of Vice, Bart Strickland came over to them. All three men swore under their breath. Cap Strickland was a total dick. Sean hated his ass, but he was his superior officer. "Captain..."

"Sean, what the f-uck screw up was this, and who’s responsible...." Michael stood up his full height and looked at the Vice Captain in the face. The two of them had history. When Michael first came to Roswell, the Vice Captain tried to get him transferred to Vice, but Valenti blocked the attempts. Then Strickland tried to get Michael fired. Valenti resisted those attempts as well.

"I'm the officer in charge...you have something to say, then say it to me." Max swore under his breath at the cold clipping tone of Michael's voice, as Sean smiled and leaned back against the paramedic’s ambulance ready to enjoy the show. His money was on Guerin. Strickland was a bloated toad with ideas of grandeur, but Guerin was the real thing. Tough.

"Guerin! I should've known! You and Evans are a walking holocaust to Roswell. You wreak havoc and mayhem wherever you go...."

Max piped up from where he sat..."Actually I'm havoc..."

Michael finished it..."And I'd be mayhem."

They listened to the man sputter and bitch for a few moments before Michael was set to interrupt, but before he could, a hard loud voice came.

"Strickland! What the hell do you think you're doing? These are my men! Mine!" The group of them watched Captain Valenti's face took on a dark red hue as he screamed down the throat of the Vice Captain. It was like watching masterful art in the making, a brilliant display of anger, profanity, and wild gesturing. Michael winced when Jim's finger pounded the other man in the chest. This rivalry started about the time Michael had shown up in Roswell. His arrest record and cases always seemed to find a way to crossover into the Vice area, and like pissing alpha males, the two Captains came to blows over it often. It didn't help that Major Crimes had the cleanest arrest record with Guerin leading the pack.

Sean smiled at Jim. Damn he was good, a fine outstanding tribute to professionalism everywhere! Looking over at the team of Evans and Guerin, Sean frowned. "What happened Michael? I don't get it. I was watching. You and Max didn't move. Nothing!...There was nothing to give you away. So how did he know?"

"I don't know. It was if he could feel us, tell that we were there." Michael took the oxygen mask and passed it over to the paramedic.

"....and I want my man back!"

"You'll get your man, when I release him from duty...and not a moment before..."

Ignoring the two Captains, Michael watched as Simon and his support teams came over. They would handle the recovery of all the evidence into lockup, and assess the damage and recovery.

"Guerin! Son-of-a-bitch ! It had to be you! Damn, only two-balled bastard I know that can cause such destruction and still walk away with a major bust."

"What's the good news, Simon?"

"The confiscated trucks had about twenty million in street grade cocaine, and it looks about another five million burned up in the warehouse. Damn, Pierce took a major hit today. The man just took it up the ass!"

Michael just shook his head. This was wrong. Something was wrong with Pierce. The man blew up five million, and walked away from another twenty. The bastard was a spook, an invisible man, and Michael couldn't explain it, but whenever he encountered Pierce, he felt cold, very cold. The man was an Iceman. A cold calculating killer who had no emotions, no remorse. He walked again, just like that! Poof! He was gone! The man was becoming a legend in the crime community, the boogieman of bad guys.

"Pierce still got away."

Simon went over and patted Michael on the shoulder. "I know, but he didn't take any of us with him this time, and so we live to fight another day, another time. You still took a huge amount of resources from him today, and the larger cities should thank us. This junk was heading for Albuquerque and Las Cruces."

Valenti came over and looked at his detectives. They were a sorry sight. Guerin always looked unkempt, but even Evans looked like something the dog had chewed on and spit out. Sean just looked like....damn, deadly pale and still the mobster. Some attitudes were so ingrained.

"The group of you head back to the station get showered and changed before that sh-it seeps through your clothes." Jim watched the new team of Evans, DeLuca and Guerin head towards Max's car. "Hey, boys...." They turned to their Captain. "You did good. Real good!"

The boys were in the showers scrubbing the powdered cocaine from their bodies. Michael could feel it burning on his skin, the buzzing in his ears told him some had gotten inside, but the feeling was abating. Seeing Sean sneaking another glance his way, Michael sighed and shook his head.

"You drop a soap near me Sean, and I'll kick your ass into another time zone!"

"Damn, Guerin...I like my boys pretty, like Evans. Plus I'm a pitcher, not a catcher, and you look to be the same."

"Fag!" Sean just laughed at Michael. Some people had problems with sexuality, but Sean wasn't one of them. He happily swung both ways, but tended to stay on the straight side. Women-he liked women a lot, but after years in Vice, he was hardly a virgin with men. However most of his experience in that area was in Las Cruces. Maybe he would someday find a nice woman to settle down, have hoards of screaming Italian brats with beautiful smiles. Life in Vice was starting to pinch him in places he couldn't afford, and in the last year his ulcer had erupted over six times. It was getting worse.

"I just keep wondering about your package there, Guerin. How the hell do you keep that hidden in your pants, and damn do you lose consciousness when it's....?" That question seemed to be a standard DeLuca one.

"Don't make me shoot you, DeLuca!" Max just snickered over in his corner taking extra care to keep his skin under the water. Damn that sh-it burned!

Michael was standing in front of his locker in just a towel. He could still hear both Max and Sean talking in the showers. Hanson came around the corner carrying a small handful of papers. Michael swore under his breath. If another man came on to him, he was going to lose it. First Alex, then Sean, and according to Max, Hanson has a crush on him. Even though he knew both Alex and Sean were just playing him, Michael was starting to get weary. Hell, he was almost through those damn anger management classes.

"Hey, Michael! I brought you the reports filed by the officers interviewing Professor Kovitch's family members. Thought you would want them...." Hanson checked at the wide shoulder of Guerin and forced himself not to let his glance wander any lower. "I heard about the bust. Damn, wished I could've been there."

Michael looked at the man and felt bad, well somewhat bad. Okay, not really. But it was hard for Hanson to be overlooked and ignored by the group. "Sorry Hanson, but I really needed this information. Next time, okay?"

Hanson smiled big and moved on his feet like a huge puppy. Michael reached in to put his hand on his gun hanging in the locker. If the man gave him a hug, he was going to shoot him. "Thanks, Guerin!" Hanson wandered off happy, while Michael released a sigh of relief and took his hand off his gun.

"Damn, Michael you're losing your edge. What the hell is wrong with you? Being nice to Hanson?" Max laughed it up, his laugh getting louder and louder at the killer look on Michael's face. In a flash of insight, Max could see Michael years down the road showing pictures of his kids gushing all over them, and hardly surprising, Max could imagine a little blond girl looking just like Maria DeLuca.

Sean chuckled under his breath at the shared insults flying between the partners. Evans and Guerin? What a team. They were mythical in their arrest record, isolated in that they didn't socialize much with others, and damn near irritating in their ability to cause mass destruction. Sean liked them. What many people took as isolated and standoffish, Sean was coming to realize was something more-life hardened and cynical. Guerin and Evans were both traumatized by life and neither was outwardly social, but that didn't stop them from dating and bedding most of the single female population in Roswell. Sean frowned at that thought and fingered his gun. Guerin was a big man, but a bullet could take him down. Giants. Sean snorted...yeah right! Mice!

A sudden wave of nausea rocked Sean on his feet. He reached out and grabbed the top of his locker to steady himself. It was the hot piercing pain in his stomach followed by a red-hot poker feeling in his back. Almost collapsing, Sean could see the prick of white light behind his eyes as moisture beaded on his forehead and upper lip.

Michael turned at the sound of Sean's moan and quickly jumped over the low bench between the lockers to catch the man. His skin was pasty and blanching. "Sean?"

"Bathroom." Sean moaned, and he looked up at Michael as Max grabbed him under his other arm. "Quick!" The three men rushed to the bathroom, and Michael and Max watched helplessly as Sean lost his stomach. Michael started cussing at the sight of blood. After Sean washed out his mouth and stood bracing himself at the sink, he looked up in the mirror at Guerin and knew it was over. Cussing, he couldn't think of anything to say to convince Michael to let it go.

"Hospital, now!"

"Michael..."

"Now, Sean. It looks like you perforated your ulcer. How much pain?"

"Michael..." Max looked at the two men facing each other in a stubborn stance.

"How much Sean?" At that moment, Sean doubled over as another wave of pain and nausea hit him. Michael took his arm and Max the other and they both grabbed their guns, shut their lockers and Sean’s, and headed out.

Alex looked up from his drink. They were on a break and the crowd was noisier than usual, or maybe it was that Alex wasn't in the mood. Since Isabel left, he had been in a pisspoor one. Getting involved with her was something he had tried to avoid, but there was something about the chick, something that demanded to be noticed. Alex grabbed another beer and lit another cigarette. Hell, he could swear he still had a hard-on just thinking about Isabel..f-ucking...Evans!

"Hey, Alex!" Alex stopped swearing at his beer and looked up at his friend and drummer, Keeley.

"Yeah, is it time?"

"Naw, we've still got a few. No, Ed-monster man was telling me that the Pigs were shaking you over your tatts."

Alex looked down at this arm and then just shrugged. "Yeah, that's about the half of it. Why?"

"Well, you know at the last huge blowout we had. The party that got raided?"

"Yeah, the one with underage kids having an orgy in the backroom. Hard to forget."

"Well there were a few people asking about your tattoo. They saw it while we were performing and everything."

Alex sat up straighter. "What did they want to know?"

"The usual. Were you into satanic worship, did it symbolize your power? Did you know what it meant...you know, the usual."

"Remember who these peeps were?"

"No, totally trashed that night, but I got these back today, and it sort of made me remember." Keeley held out a package of photos developed from a local drug chain. "I was flipping through them, and they're in a couple of the shots."

Alex swore under his breath. Great, just great! Dammit, did he look like he cared? Alex looked around and spotted Sheila, a regular hanger-on, really fine lay with a clit ring.

"Hey! Sheila! Give me one of those greasy makeup pencils you like to use." Sheila smiled at him and tossed him a lip liner in red. "Here use this and circle the faces on the pictures."

"Man, it will ruin my pictures...."

"Keep the damn negatives. I'll have copies made for you." Alex grabbed his phone to see if he could locate the pissy Guerin and pretty boy Evans. What a way to f-uck up his night. Civic duty his ass...

Alex found them in the waiting room. The Department dispatch told him where they were. He should have just had the damn things delivered, but something made him want to hand them over personally. A part of him that insisted on being honest despite his better nature, recognized that he was hoping to hear how Isabel was and if she actually made it to the clinic. He refused to pick up the phone and check with his friends, since she already had moved too far into his life, and he was reluctant to give her more room.

"Detectives Cagney and Lacey?" Alex happily kept a nice ugly sneer on his face as he faced the two, purposely licking his lips when he saw Michael's eyes narrow.

"Whitman! Come to confess to fashion death? Or noise pollution?"

"A sense of humor! Detective! Who would have guessed? No, I came to give you these." Alex pulled the pictures from the back pocket of his jeans. He was so through with this scene. If he kept acting out of character, someone was going to mistake him for a 'nice guy'.

Michael took the envelope. "What are they?"

"Pictures from a party, and if you hassle me over anything you see in any of those pictures it will be the last time I go out of my way."

"What's so special...?"

"One of my band members remembers a few people asking intensely about my tattoo, the one you were interested in. They were psycho enough to stay in his drug clouded memory, and when he got his pictures back he recognized some of the faces."

"Where is this band member? Can we talk to him?" Michael passed the pictures and the rolled report Hanson had given him from his back pocket to Max.

"Not here, and he doesn't mix well with the legal c-ocks, but I had him circle the faces...anymore than that I don't know." Alex turned to walk off before they could question him more. This civic duty crap was for the birds.

"Alex!" Alex halted in his tracks and sighed, not even bothering to turn around at Max's voice.

"Yeah?"

"I heard from my sister. Isabel. She made it to the clinic you arranged for her." Alex turned to look back at the man, noticing the worry lines and age on his face. Nodding, Alex turned to walk away.

"No problem. Nevertheless, don't even make the mistake. I ain't no angel."

Max and Michael watched the tall man walk away. Max had told Michael earlier about Isabel, and both of them were hoping that this time they would get Isabel back, that this was finally the program that would work.

"That's funny." Michael looked at his partner with a question in his eye.

"What's funny?" Michael watched as Max moved over to pour them both another cup of coffee.

"I thought he looked like an angel."

Michael went to take his seat again and stared out the window for a few moments trying to avoid looking at the phones. "Yeah, so did I."

"What's this, Michael?" Max reached down to hand Michael another cup of coffee indicating the rolled up report Michael had handed him earlier.

"The follow-up reports on Kovitch's family. Hanson brought it to me."

"I thought they were going to talk to the family at the funeral tomorrow?" Max took the report out to read, but before he could, he saw the doctor moving towards him. "Michael. Doctor."

Both man stood to face the approaching man in a white jacket. "Officers? Are you with Officer DeLuca?"

Michael nodded. "Yeah, we brought him in. Is he okay? Is it his ulcer?"

"Yes, and no. Normally I would only discuss this with family members, but in lieu of the findings, perhaps it's best to discuss this with you. We sent Officer DeLuca for an upper GI. The endoscopy showed blood in his stomach, but his ulcer isn't bleeding. The blood is from another source. So we pumped his stomach...he didn't appreciate the procedure." Michael could imagine Sean's reaction. "The initial test results came back on the stomach content. Your friend was poisoned."

"Poisoned!" Both Max and Michael said at the same time becoming straighter and more alert.

"Well, it could be a mistake. Herbal shops make them time to time. However, with the mixture of blood and herbals, it had to have been purposely drunk. There was a large quantity of Datura stramonium in his system. We did a tox screen of his blood and urine. He might have ingested it two or three days ago according to the symptoms he reported."

"I don't understand..." Max looked at the doctor confused. "Wouldn't the stuff in his stomach empty out in two or three days?"

"Normally, yes, but atropine and anticholinergics like belladonna and others can cause an ileus which stopped his stomach from being able to empty, and his stomach lining kept absorbing more and more of the poison, slowly killing him. We treated him with physostignime salicylate, the final run just finished. We need to keep him and monitor his heart, and bowel sounds. Until the ileus resolves, he needs to be completely npo..." Max looked at the doctor even more confused. "Sorry, nothing by mouth. He's a sick man."

Michael looked at Max and frowned. "Can we see him?" The doctor nodded. "Doctor, what exactly is Datura stramonium ?"

"Oh, it's a member of the nightshade family....very poisonous."

Max looked at Michael sharply. Nightshade and blood. The witch's potion. They entered the room to look at a very pale and weak Sean. The nurse was just removing the IV line as the doctor left to see about getting Sean a room on the floor.

"Sean, you were poisoned with the...."

"Witch's potion....dammit, I know. Hold on...just hold on a f-ucking minute...I need to think." Sean kept shaking his head trying to clear his thoughts of when he drank the vile sh-it, and trying to keep himself from losing his stomach at the thought of drinking Dianne's blood. The last stuff he drank was white wine and clear Tequila with Cassie, and she was sick too. Where could he have gotten blood? Bloody hell...

"Maria! Wait!" Cassie ran after Maria with Liz fast on her heels. This was insane, crazy, and suicidal! Michael Guerin was going to kill them! Maria just kept on running until she reached the door into the Anthropology Building. Using her key, she opened the door and went inside, not caring if Liz and Cassie followed. She listened to their arguments all the way over from her Loft, and in truth, she was tired of listening.

They entered the building, ran down the stairs to the basement, and followed Maria into her office. Maria paused in the doorway, almost stunned by the sight in front of her. Liz when she reached the door almost gasped at the sight. Cassie looked at the two women in confusion and then the office and couldn't contain her horror. "F-uck me! Sh-it, your office it's been ransacked!"

Maria just shook her head no. "No, no, this is what it normally looks like, I was just hoping something, or someone came and did an act of cleanliness on it...but no." Maria entered the office with Liz slowly following. She never noticed the office the first time she came because she was so nervous, and then making that remark to Tess Hardy, but this...this was worse than the Museum office. Liz looked at Maria DeLuca in awe, in horror, and almost in fear. As if she were the Antichrist.

"This is the way it normally looks! Damn, no wonder the murderer couldn't find the artifact...no one could." Cassie looked around the place trying to imagine how much work it would have taken to create this level of mess.

"The deliveries are over here, against the wall. Tess put them there when they were delivered here accidentally instead of the Museum. When we first started working on the Museum, Dickie, head of the mailroom kept sending everything here. But I finally convinced him to send it to the Museum. This was the first time in over six months that a delivery wasn't taken to the right place."

Cassie just shook her head in wonder. Dumb blind luck. That was what it was. The one delivery ended up here instead of the Museum. If it had gone to the Museum, Chris, Kovitch and Dianne would all still be alive...if only.

"Oh no!" Cassie looked at Maria sharply. "It's not here! It has to be."

Cassie grabbed Maria to calm her down. "Okay, just think...where is it? Where would it go?"

"I don't know! I'm telling you it was there the last time I was in my office. Monday. It was here Monday. I remember seeing it."

"Okay, so that means sometime between Monday and today someone moved it. That's three days..."

Liz looked around the office, seeing papers, books and artifacts, but no packages. "It pretty obvious Cassie that the murderer took it. Who else was looking for it? Maria hasn't been here since Dianne..." Liz looked at Maria in sympathy. The young woman sat down in her chair defeated.

"I lost it. I can't believe the f-ucker beat me. I just wanted to stop them from getting it...to keep from making Dianne..." Maria just shook her head.

"Okay, granted the murderer is looking for this dagger, but it doesn't mean they found it...Think Maria." Cassie grabbed the arms of Maria's chair. "Think. Who else could have moved it?"

Maria just stared off into space, trying to come to terms with the lost items. Cheryl... Maria reached for her office phone and quickly called her secretary. On the third ring, Cheryl answered.

"Hello?"

"Cheryl? It's Professor DeLuca." Maria waited and let her secretary talk and express her sorrow over the loss of Dianne. "Thank you. Yes, I got the flowers. That was very kind...Look Cheryl, I was wondering about the deliveries in my office...."

Maria frowned at the phone as her secretary cut her off again. Finally thanking her and apologizing for disturbing her after hours, Maria hung up. "Let's go!"

"Wait! Maria where are we going?" Liz asked looking aback at Cassie in confusion as she shut the office door behind her.

"The museum. Cheryl had some students take them over to the Museum yesterday. She told them to store them in the mezzanine above the Cathedral floor where we've been working. She wanted to keep them separate from the other artifacts." Maria quickly raced up the front steps to the museum and searched for the correct key.

"I don't like this one little bit. Maria, we need to call someone-Michael-or anyone-and let them know where we are." Cassie pleaded once again as she and Liz followed Maria into the building and watched it securely lock the door behind them. Cassie caught up to Maria half way up the stairs to the mezzanine. "Okay, okay. I know you've got to do this...but give me your keys."

"Why?" Maria looked at the two nervous women.

"I'm going into your office and calling the PD to inform them where we are. Liz is going to go find the security guard and get someone over here. And you can go look for the artifact, but you are not to leave the mezzanine." Maria nodded and started back up the stairs, but Cassie's hand hard on her arm stopped her. "Do you understand Maria?"

"Yeah, got it, okay." The three women looked at each other and split up. Liz rushed down the hall to the second staircase that led to the formal second floor. On the second floor there was a security callbox used by the night watchman to call in his location and check in. It was a direct line to Campus Security.

As Liz reached the top of the stairs, she felt a brush of coldness against her arm, and the sounds of harsh breathing behind her. Before she could turn, a hand came over her mouth and felt the biting cut of the blade across her throat nicking the side.

With the addition of pressure, Liz could see her life ending, finally coalescing back into the soul she lost so many years ago. As the blade was moving across her neck, Liz's weight fell back on her assassin almost toppling them both down the stairs. The dark figure moved out the way as Liz Parker's body tumbled down the stairs and lay there in a heap with blood seeping from her neck.

Cassie cussed as she tried to find the key in the dark. Moving quickly along the wall, she tried to find a light switch when she heard the loud noises coming from above as Maria searched through the boxes and crates looking for the dagger. Cassie finally located a switch and turned it on, her asthma laboring the breath in her lungs as her body tried to compensate for running around all over creation and the stress of doing it. Taking out her inhaler, Cassie took two full puffs and turned back to the task.

Maria saw the delivery at once. Picking up a crowbar to pull the tops off the packing crates, Maria sat it down to search through the boxes. Some were open, and for a second Maria was worried that they were too late. It was in the third crate. As soon as she moved the packing straw away, Maria saw the shiny golden metal and the emblem of Dru Rhiannon.

Taking it over to look down at the marbled floor of the central cathedral area below, it seemed like such a long time since she had found Chris ten days ago, and a day later sitting downstairs working on the collections with everyone, Dianne, Janhie, Liz, Eddie, Cassie, and the other graduate students. The laughter seemed trapped in the air as they teased Liz about the penis gourd, Eddie disrobing to their whistles, and darling sweet Janhie wandering among them charming them with stories of worlds since past. And Dianne with her roasted almonds...

If you could freeze time, slow it to its slowest increments and view everything with a knowing eye, perhaps those moments lost or overlooked could come back...show you what was imprinted, but ignored. Maria stood there looking down, seeing the floor with all those ghosts happily talking. There she was, talking to Janhie, helping him on with his coat. He looked over her shoulder at the group assembled, and a shiver ran through his body...a shiver. It was at that moment, his eyes met the killer's and he knew he was dead, and that Maria was too close to danger. It was at that moment he dropped his passion for the story of the Praetorian and Dru Rhiannon and understood the gravity of evil.

The sound came behind Maria, slowly mounting the stairs. Maria kept looking down, feeling her sorrow for both Janhie and Dianne. They had gotten in the way just like Chris. Janhie, because once he knew the killer was in a position to search for the missing dagger, he had outlived his usefulness. Dianne was a victim of circumstance. She held the witch's potion on her computer, and did not go home to Roger. Once you knew who, the why became easy.

Maria held out her hand at her side with the dagger. Without turning around, she said, "Is this what you've been looking for Cassie ?"

Michael and Max stared at Sean trying to sieve through his own scrambled brains, searching for the solution. Both men knew that there was no way that Sean was involved or in any way a threat to Maria. Max started to scan the report given to Michael by Hanson. It not only had the updated Kovitch information, but his requested FBI search for crimes in the past few months in other states other than New Mexico. Michael quickly flipped through the photos.

Sean thought about the wine and tequila that he and Cassie drank on Monday night. The wine was white, and the tequila was clear. They took their dinner into his room in case Michael and Maria came home. They had sat on his bed sharing a large plate, and Sean drank the wine straight from the bottle and fed Cassie from his fork. She had opened his shirt and was moving down his front, her hands on his pants...when his memory went blank. It was a while later that he remembered her feeding him more wine with tequila chasers as his wrists were tied to the bed, and she had removed his clothes and hers. The wine it was...rank. The tequila helped to remove the taste from his mouth, that and Cassie kissing him all over. Sean remembered almost drinking the entire bottle of tequila with Cassie helping him, pouring some on his body. It was only a few hours after they had finally fallen asleep that Michael knocked on the door. Sean remembered walking to the door and tripping over the empty wine bottles grabbing the tequila to take another swig to get the nasty taste out of his mouth. Wine bottles? That was wrong. There should've only been one....

Michael found her. She was in the party pictures. Cassie Welsh looked enough like Professor Kovitch's youngest sister to have sparked recognition in Michael, and seeing her picture made it all come together. Max's gasp drew his attention. Max passed him the Kovitch family report. They had skipped Janhie Kovitch's sister in the first sweep, because she had died at a young age. But she still had left two sons, a daughter, and a husband, Commander Welsh of the Las Cruces PD. He had retired to San Antonio, Texas. Max passed him a crime report of the murder of Welsh in Texas. They found him over six weeks ago in his easy lounger with his neck cut and his blood drained. The walls were covered in the symbol of Dru Rhiannon written by Cassie in her father's own blood. Michael looked at Max as he passed him two more reports. Both Cassie's brothers and their families had also been slaughtered, one brother in Ohio, and the other brother in Arizona.

The three men looked at each other. Michael turned to leave the room with the other two rushing to follow him. "Maria!"

Sean struggled to get out of the hospital bed. Max saw and him and called to Michael. Both men came back and pushed Sean back into the bed. "Dammit, Michael let me up! That bitch...she's with Maria! We left her with Maria!"

"Sean, we're going. You need to stay here." Michael tried to subdue the weak man who was surprisingly stronger than he looked physically.

"Michael..." Michael and Sean shared a common look, a flash of understanding between soldiers whose duty was to protect, and the realization they might fail. He nodded and helped Sean up. The three men rushed out the hospital with Sean still trying to refasten his clothes. The nurse tried to stop them, but one look at both Sean and Michael sent her stepping back in silence. They hit the sirens as Michael called in for backup to roll on the Loft. Sean was in the backseat calling Maria on his cell phone...the phone was answered, but no one spoke. Sean cussed under his breath and looked at Michael seeing the same dull dead look in his eye that must have in his. Max increased his speed.

They got to the Loft and it was empty. Michael rushed upstairs and Max checked the garden and garage. Sean went into his bedroom and brought out the two empty wine bottles. One was the bottle of white wine that he remembered. The other was a dark bottle, looked like a red wine bottle. Turning the bottle over he looked at the bottom. There were bloodstains. Showing Michael the blood and then smelling the bottle, Sean almost threw up again.

"Where is she? Sean, where would Maria go?" Sean just shook his head. She should have been here. Looking down at his cell phone, she answered it, but never spoke. Sean looked at Michael.

"She answered her phone, but she couldn't talk. Trace it. We can trace the signal!" Michael grabbed the home phone and called into dispatch to have Sean's cell traced. His phone was an official police line, so it would be quick.

Max looked at the two men, both pacing near frantic. "Michael, the Museum or University. Maria would go there if she found something." The three men were out the door in a dead run, Michael pushing Max away from the driver's seat. F-uck the Department. They could take his badge for driving on duty without passing those damn anger management classes. They could hear the units approaching the Loft. Max grabbed the hand radio and order units to the University while trying to hold on for life, his hands white trying to hold himself upright as Michael took another corner without slowing. They saw the Jetta parked in the Anthropology Building lot. Michael didn't even stop to try the door. He and Sean both kicked it in. Her office was empty. What the f-uck?

The three men said at the same time...."Museum."

"Yes, that is what I want." Maria turned to see Cassie standing a few feet from her with a bloody knife. She dropped it. Maria could feel her heart stopping in her throat.

"Liz?"

"Oh, the irritating perfect Liz Parker is not so perfect anymore...."

Maria started towards Cassie in anger. "You sick f-uck! What did she do to you, to anyone?"

"She was in my way!" Cassie calmly raised her gun and aimed it at Maria. "Uh uh, step back Professor. I would hate to waste your life and blood on a gunshot wound. I have plans that are more specific for you, but first we need to leave here. They'll look for you here." Cassie smiled without humor or any trace of emotion. "That is assuming Detective Guerin made it through this last bust. I really hope Sean is okay. He was a load of fun." Maria started to advance on her again, and Cassie raised the gun and shook her head no.

"Why? Why Dianne?" Maria asked as she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She had turned off the ringer earlier, not wanting to receive any calls from Michael in case he called and wanted to know what she was doing. Maria knew that if Michael knew she was rushing off to the University, he'd have something to say about it. Now Maria was revising her thinking. So, he was right again. Maria flipped open the phone, but couldn't answer it.

Cassie looked almost remorseful over Dianne. "Dianne was a mistake. I told her, warned her to go home. She promised. How was I to know she would still be there five hours later? I set up my date with Sean, drugged him with his own sleeping pills I took the day before. He was my alibi. I used him before when I took out your assistant. The scenes were too clean. Eventually Michael would have figured out that a professional forensic expert would be a person who knew how to suppress or avoid contaminating a crime scene. Janhie was easy. Dianne wasn't. She struggled. I almost had a full blown asthma attack because of her."

Maria felt sick at the matter of fact detailing of how and why Cassie killed Dianne. "I don't understand why. What was so important in the research to force you to go get the hardcopies?"

"The witch's potion, of course. Janhie had a list, but it was incomplete. The list was possibly a more detailed one. Do you know how many times I tried to activate the protection spell? Not even the blood of the innocent, the strong, or the evil had any effect. The armor...I wore the armor a few times...nothing! Not a damn thing!"

"Cassie, it was only a legend. Dianne was a real person, so was Janhie."

Cassie cackled at the name of Janhie. "He was a fool, my dear doddering old uncle with his stories of glory and strength. He said he felt the power of the site when they dug up the armor and the dagger. He talked like some kind of idiot, happy to have someone listen to him. I worked on him for an entire year to get the armor and the dagger, and when they finally approved the Museum the opportunity came. The old fool, he looked at me in the Museum that day..." Cassie pointed down to where she stood. "I knew he was going to tell. He was going to betray me, and for what? A security guard?" Cassie didn't mention the others. The knowledge that eventually someone would link the cases fueled her desperation, and she knew that exposure was imminent. Cassie had been working against a timetable, and today time had run out.

"So you killed him." Maria looked at the angry crazed look in Cassie eyes and prayed someone would come soon.

"Yes. I killed him. I killed them all. They were weak...without. Then I met you. Everything changed. I wanted Guerin. His blood would have been glorious! Or to get him to drink yours is still a great desire of mine. He's epic, almost his own legend! But I had to settle for Sean. Michael wouldn't let me near him for anything. Sean wasn't settling much, because Sean is like Michael. I can see it in his eyes. They have the same look."

"How did meeting me change everything?" Maria tried to slowly move towards the stairs, but Cassie refused to put her gun down.

"I was convinced that I was the witch, that my blood was stronger than my body. Guerin was like my reincarnated Praetorian lover, but I was wrong. It wasn't me! It was you...you're the witch. What you didn't discover was that the witch Dru Rhiannon bound the spell not with the blood of a sacrifice, but with her own blood. She cut herself and bled out enough to use it, but she had to stay alive long enough to complete the potion and spell or her blood would lose her power. When I saw you and Guerin together, I knew. It was you. You and he were the witch and the Praetorian reborn. I felt your life, how you could control him without a thought. For two whole years I tried to get his attention, and you in less than twenty-four had him all tied up." Cassie approached Maria. "Give me the dagger! Drop it! I need it to finish the spell. I'll take it and your blood." Cassie turned at the sound of a firing gun. Maria tried to overtake her once her back was turned, but Cassie was too quick in turning around.

"Now that wasn't nice!" Cassie turned and slashed Maria across the abdomen. Pulling her close, she whispered in Maria's ear holding her hand over her mouth. "Now be very, very quiet...it looks as if our lover has come." Cassie's hand reached for the lights...

Michael ran up the stairs to the Museum. He could see the lights on inside even though the doors were locked. Sean looked at him and went to the right to try to find another place to get in, and Max tried to help Michael. Finally in desperation, Michael took out his gun, and shot the lock. He and Max crashed through the door. Rushing into the area, suddenly the lights went off, and Michael gestured to the sounds above coming from the mezzanine. Max nodded and took the stairs to the left as Michael went up the right side.

Max just barely made the top of the stairs when something slammed into him followed by a burning pain in his left shoulder. The knife came down and took a large swipe at his left shoulder, and with a foot to his stomach, Cassie pushed him back down the stairs. Max hit the banister as he went down knocking a gash on his head and leaving him out cold.

Going over to the floor where she left a bleeding Maria, Cassie pulled her up on her feet with the dagger in one arm across Maria's bleeding abdomen. The other hand held the revolver. Hitting the lights, Cassie turned to look at Michael as he came up the stairs on the other side. Slowly moving away from the stairs, Cassie moved herself and Maria across the mezzanine keeping their backs to the banister of the balcony looking down into the cathedral floor.

Maria looked up in pain at Michael as he stepped up on the mezzanine floor keeping his gun trained on Cassie. Cassie just shook her head no-no, smiling at him evilly.

"Hi, honey! Did you get any milk on your way home?" Maria asked, trying to stay calm. Michael glanced at Maria and for a moment of clarity, they shared a look.

"Cassie, release her, and I'll let you live." Cassie laughed at Michael.

"Oh I plan to live for a very long time Guerin, but I'm afraid that I can't say the same for Professor DeLuca here. She seems to be slipping away, and that would be a tragedy since her blood is very valuable to me." Cassie laughed. "I would love to use a combination the blood of both of you...the original pair together again. I knew she was the one from the look on your face when I crushed her hand that first day. It was almost as if I had broken your prized toy, violated her. Just one look and it was as if you had known each other over a thousand lifetimes. I needed that energy. That strength."

"And what will it get you? We know about you. There is nowhere that you can go, and no place you can hide. They will find you..."

"True, but then again, the chase might be fun." Michael moved towards her trying not to look into Maria's eyes. The blood pooling on Cassie's arm already told him he was losing her. Cassie's body jumped at the sound of glass breaking on the second floor somewhere to the right in the main building, and the sound of sirens in the night. "Sorry, can't talk anymore. Time to pay..."

Maria out of the corner of her eye saw Cassie's arm raised, and as she screamed she turned and watched the bullet hit Michael in his upper left shoulder too close to mid-chest. "NO! Michael! Michael?" Maria tried to struggle free as the knife bit into her stomach even more. Michael hit the back of the wall from the force of the impact, and slowly slid down leaving a blood trail.

Michael raised his eyes and met Maria's as Cassie slowly raised her arm to shoot Michael again. Time stretched and elongated as Michael saw the tears in Maria's eyes, and watched them slowly run down her cheeks. Maria was crying for him. For some reason that bothered Michael more than the thought of dying. Michael saw the moment Maria saw Cassie's arm come up, and with an unemotional click of her head to the side, Michael felt his blood run cold. Maria's eyes were cold, hard and resolved.

"Maria! NO!" Michael struggled to get up as Maria's arm swept upward knocking Cassie's arm wide making her shot miss Michael. And then, in a flash of motion, Maria's head went back knocking hard against Cassie's chin and Maria let her weight fall on Cassie propelling them both backwards. Michael watched almost in slow motion as the two women hit the banister, and Cassie went over the beam from the force of the combined weight of both her and Maria.

Michael scrambled to his feet ignoring the shooting pain in his shoulder willing the nausea and threats of blackness away. Michael called out in horror as he watched Maria go with Cassie over the beam. He barely made it in time to reach over and grab her hand. Looking past Maria, Michael watched as Cassie hit the marble floor below, and actually bounced and then crumpled in a puddle of her own blood. Holding Maria tightly by the hand, Michael tried to hook his legs to the safety railing and pull her back to safety. He could see the blood from the cut drain down to cover Cassie in the precious blood she wanted so much.

"God, Maria, hold on! Don't let go. Don't let go!" Michael tried to move his left arm to help his right, but it lay worthless against his body. He was sliding over the beam with Maria. Michael turned to scream over his shoulder. "Someone help me! Sean! Max! Anyone!" Michael turned to see Maria looking at him, with tears still in her eyes and an almost humble gentleness.

"Baby, it's okay. Just let me go." Michael shook his head no. "Michael, let me go. I'm alright." Maria could see the pain and strain on his face, and if he didn't let her go, they both would die. She could feel the coldness as the blood slowly drained from her body. It was a feeling she knew well.

"If you go, we both go! So shut up and hold on." Michael heard Sean's voice calling him. "Up here! Sean, hurry!"

Sean had to climb up to a second story access window and broke the glass with his hands. He found Liz Parker on his way down and Max as he ran up the stairs of the mezzanine. Spying Michael barely holding Maria, Sean raced to his side and helped Michael lift her back over the railing. The couple collapsed on the floor, and Maria looked at her cousin as he saw the cut and the blood. He took off his jacket and shirt and quickly pressed it to Maria's wound. Ripping Michael's own shirt off, Sean tried to keep both of them from bleeding to death.

"Just in time, cousin." Maria tried to smile, but could only cough her voice getting smaller and weaker. "Liz, you've got to find Liz."

"I found her! Don't worry. She's still alive. Just barely." Sean heard steps coming up the stairs and turned to see a ragged Max bleeding from the cut across the top of his shoulder and from a gash on his head.

"Sean, Sean...Liz...someone must stay with her all the time, never leave her until she recovers...." Maria's voice was fading fast. "So her spirit doesn't leave her again and make her more of a ghost..."

Sean looked over at Max and told him where to find Parker, to hurry. Max stood there looking at the bleeding bodies of his partner and Maria, almost ready to refuse to leave, but someone needed to go to Liz, so he turned and went down the stairs. When Sean looked back, Maria was already gone. She had fainted from the loss of blood and her skin was white and blue as the cold set in.

Sean took out his phone and called dispatch. He could hear sirens closing in, but they seemed so far away. "I need an ambulances! I've got officers down...officers down!" Sean dropped the phone and turned back to the couple continuing to apply pressure on the compresses as the blood soaked through.

"Sean." Sean turned and looked at Michael where he lay against the banister with Maria bleeding out on him. Oh God, not another one, not another person to bleed to death in his arms. With tears in his eyes and his voice rough and dry, he told Sean what to do. "No drugs! Sean, no drugs. I'm allergic." Sean nodded. "And Sean...if Maria doesn't make it...if she doesn't make it...use that bullet you've saved for me..." Sean watched as Michael passed out too.

"Oh God, please." Sean pressed harder looking as the life drained from the two, and he did something he hadn't done in years, since he was a child. "Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation...Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen...Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.........."

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