Smoke coiled through the broken skyscraper like dying serpents.
Deep within the collapsed floors, far beneath twisted steel and scorched concrete, lay Vladimir's ruined body. His chest was caved inward, bones shattered like glass. Black blood seeped between the cracks in the floor, dripping into the hollow below. His ashen wings twitched once. Twice. Then fell still.
Silence.
Until a footstep echoed in the dark.
Light didn't come with it. Only presence. Heavy. Final. It pressed against the broken walls like a hand closing around a candle flame. Vladimir's remaining eye flickered open, dim and unfocused. Shadows shifted in front of him, resolving into a tall figure. Bare feet on scorched steel. A simple black robe that moved like liquid night. Golden eyes looking down at him, quiet and unblinking.
Adam.
Vladimir's throat rattled with a broken laugh. "Come to… finish me off…?" he rasped. Blood bubbled from his lips, thick and black as oil.
