Grace Miller

Grace Miller is a recurring character in Touch of Magic. She is a vampire, and has stood by the side of May Miller as co-leaders of The Millers. She is a survivor, and tries to make her voice heard when she can. From her position as second of command of the largest vampire army, she is often tasked with morally though decisions, and the responsibility to reason with her sister's irrational ideas. 
Grace has leadership potential, however this gets overpowered by her sister's raging ambition and hunger for power. She usually follows orders, but also has a self-preservation instinct. She demonstrated this when she chose a wizard as the father of her child, to ensure her child's survival. She succesfully flew under the radar in Europe for 18 years while raising her son. Unlike others around her, Grace is known to have a soft spot for children and abuse victims, as a remnant of her not having a childhood herself, due to abuse.
Grace is shown to be resourceful, and influencial to those around her. Grace also enjoys a lifestyle of luxury, specifically when that wealth has been reclaimed from people who do not deserve it, giving her a sense of rightousness.
==Life==
=== Yelena Stanislav ===
Grace was born on a farm in Ukraine to Aleksi and Lyudmila Stanislav. She grew up there, and helped her mother care for her younger siblings. One day, a traveller came by the farm and he was given shelter from the rain in the barn. The man seemed to have an interest in Grace from the beginning, and in the middle of the night he abducted her. 
She was brought to his place in Kyiv, where he had another woman captive. Grace was kept alive, and human, for the first two months of her captivity. She bonds with May, who tells her that their captive is a vampire who turned her too. Grace realizes she will suffer the same faith, and comes up with the plan for May to ration the blood he gives her. When the man is attacked on the street and wounded he uses Grace as his personal bloodbank and turns her into a vampire in the process.
May guides her through the new experience as a vampire, and once she has escaped and killed their captor, May offers for Grace to join her. Grace accepts the offer, and joins in on May's quest for liberation from the oppression they had experienced in captivity, however early on Grace realized she wanted freedom more so than power.
In the centuries that followed, Grace created a sanctuary for herself within the Millers. While still supporting her sister in the great endeavours, and acting as a united front, Grace enjoyed her distance on th day-to-day running of their army. She aquired her own loyal group of servants, referenced to as The Maidens within the The Miller Compound. Maidens were taught to ignore the wishes and commands of any of Grace's male visitors, and were permitted to kill them if they behaved inappropriate. Every female member of the Millers that was a virgin joined The Maidens, and Grace acted maternal and protective of these girls. When they lost their virginity, the girls were considered 'graduated' from The Maidens and they would join The Millers on other missions.
In the 19th century Grace ran a plantation as the second wife of Randall Wilkes. When Grace discovered Randall's severe abuse of some of the female slaves, she took action and used him as her personal bloodbank for seven months. After slavery was abolished, Grace made Randall work in the fields, until he eventually died of sunstroke and dehydration.
=== Grace Miller ===
In 1912 she used the alias of a nun, sister Mary-Grace Miller, to gain access to a pedophilic priest who she killed. She then got praised by the other sisters, and associated the name Grace with something good. She chose to burn official ties to her previous identities, and chose to start anew under the name of Grace Miller.
Throughout the 20th century, Grace has enlisted members of the Miller army on so-called Angel-missions, in which they would take down sex-trafficing networks, slavery and human trade. In 1930, Grace took down several corrup wall street traders. In 1947 Grace killed four remaining SS-soldiers at large.
Since the 1950's, Grace found herself affected by the idea of a white picket fence, and the boomer mentality of settling down and having a family. She gained access to the magic that allowed May to conceive, and tried to conceive a child with her lover at the time, Sean O'Brien. The conception failed and Grace got very sick, causing for Sean to enlist the help of May despite Grace's objections. When May found out Grace wanted a child, May feels hurt that she didn't ask for her help. For a moment, Grace realizes May might be able to give other people a slice of happiness. When Grace approaches May months later, asking for help to make her dream of a family come true, May states that she has reconsidered and that it's not a good idea for Grace to become distracted by motherhood, since they are about to make big political decisions. 
Grace is hurt, and takes the opportunity of attending a vampire meeting in Vegas to reflect on her loyalty to May. Matt corners her at this meeting, reminding her she what happens to people who turn their backs on May. Grace asks him if he has never doubted May and his loyalty to her, to which Matt replies saying he knows he'll never be her number one but he can't act ungrateful. Grace and Matt have a few months of bonding, as they travel around the country together. Grace states she likes him better than she does Jared.
Matt returns the sentiment by giving her access to the magic to conceive, telling her she deserves to have a chance at her happy ending. Matt warns her to be smart about it, and tells her May has a plan in place to pull the rug from under all of them if needed be. Matt explains he has a backup connection if all fails, mentioning he feels like they're at a tipping point and May's luck might run out soon. This prompts Grace to reunite with Sean, and they research the options to conceive a child that would survive May's magical contingency. When Grace realizes this could work with the dna of a wizard, she goes behind Sean's back and inserts herself into the life of Christopher Greene, eventually resulting in a successfull pregnancy. 
When Grace returns to the Miller compound, she wants to tell May about the baby, knowing she will need the protection of The Millers in order to keep her and her child safe while they are at their most vulnerable. However when May tells her Sean died on a mission, Grace senses May had something to do with it and she choses not to tell her about the pregnancy. She enlists Matt's help in getting her assigned on a mission in Europe. Grace then goes off the grid, messaging May saying she needs time to grieve Sean's death as she resides in Ireland, where Sean was from. 
=== Grace O'Brien ===
In reality, Grace choses the place to stay under the radar and give birth to her son, Liam. She keeps an eye on Sean's descendants while she lives a suburban life. While undercover she meets Mason Whittmore and they start a relationship. Once Mason discovers the baby, Grace has to reveal that she is not Yelena, but Grace Miller. Mason announces that while he doesn't want to betray Grace's trust, he needs to find a place to belong and he believes The Millers can be that for him. Grace tells him to go, and while Liam is on his flight back to America, Grace calls her sister to let her know Mason tried to attack her and should not be trusted. Mason is taken in as he arrives at the front gate of The Millers Headquarters, and held in captivity for 7 years. His story about Grace is considered a strategy to gain May's trust, and leads him nowhere.
When her son is 18, Grace gets visited by Jared, who had admired Mason's determination in telling his story all these years that he decided he wanted to go check it out herself. While Grace originally pretends that Liam is just someone to take care of her house, Jared eventually finds pictures of Liam throughout different stages of his life. Jared tells Grace that parental feelings only make them weak and that Liam is a disgrace to the Miller name. When Jared is about to kill him, Grace persuades him to train Liam instead and make him worthy. Grace plays into the longing for Jared to be a male rolemodel the way he was to his younger siblings. Jared agrees to take Liam into training camp, and leaves it ambiguous to Grace weither or not he will tell May about his identity. 
Grace returns to America five months after Liam is recruited into the army to see him thriving into the environment. When Grace is watching Liam in the training room, she is surprised by Sean approaching her. While Grace is originally delighted to see him, she feels bad for having to lie to him about Liam's identity. Sean reveals to her that he was selected for a special mission working with The Valkyries to kill Lilian and Christopher Greene, and Grace listens to him marvel at watching Christopher Greene die by his hands. Grace is conflicted about hearing her one true love killing the father of her child. 
Liam notices his mom acts weird after that, and tells her people are starting to talk about the time they spend together. Grace then realizes Jared holds too much power over her, and she decides to confront May and Jared together. Grace reveals that Liam is her son, and that Jared knew this all along. When Jared tells her she just signed Liam's death sentence, Grace tells them both that if Liam gets hurt in any way, she will tell the entire vampire community that they were involved in the death of Lilian and Christopher. May takes her to a seperate room, and tells Grace that the life of one vampire is not worth such a scandal coming out. Grace then tells May she would not expect her to understand because she is a horrible mother. 
Grace leaves the compound, but eventually returns with May offering a truce and stating Jared has left again. Grace runs this information by The Maidens, who are still loyal to her from inside the compound. She then orders Sean to meet her in an isolated cabin, realizing she has to end their relationship because she can not keep lying to him. However in the moment she can not go through with it, and instead she choses to tell Sean about Liam, and about who his father is. Sean asks her if she hates him for killing Christopher, and Grace states Christopher was just a means to an end. Grace tells Sean she wished Liam was his, and that she still wants the family they could have. 
=== Season One ===
During Season One the tension is still there but the sisters keeping their distance is enough to keep things from escalating. Sean gives Grace intell he receives from Lincoln in Waterfall Creek, stating that The Dawsons are attempting to make an alliance with the Silverstones that could threaten The Millers. Grace takes this information to May, who calls their bluff. Grace then approaches Jared, asking him to make May reconsider. Instead, Jared decides to go to Waterfall Creek himself, without consulting May, with Grace failing to realize Jared has a personal vendetta with the Dawsons.
=== Season Six ===
It is revealed in a letter by Grace that she intended on Liam to find a home with his sisters. She did not want him to live the life she had lived amongst vampires. She explains she raised him in humanity to give him a chance at that cruelty free life. Grace asks for his forgiveness for being a bad mother and not protecting him more.
==Characteristics==
TBA.
Category:Characters
Category:Recurring characters
Category:Needs Content