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Post by Derek Burke on May 28, 2018 15:50:11 GMT -5
He was too lost in the blood rage to realize that the pain Christian was feeling led to a memory resurfacing. That revelation would come later. For now he was just trying to catch his breath and a much needed reprieve from the powerful attacks Christian effortlessly sent his way.
When he did manage to catch his breath, he stumbled forward. The fight was over, and something else was digging into Derek's mind as Peter's story held another clue.
Alessa.
Derek knew that name. He didn't know how he knew it, or what it connected to - there was just too much research and innocuous details for him to remember everything - but he had the notes at his place. He stepped over Christian's body.
He didn't bother to look back at the man, but stood facing the stairs intent upon leaving. He paused.
"The order was changed. Capture not kill. That's the only reason you're still breathing, but Diana..."
Derek didn't know what was happening to her, and there was only so much more the woman could take. They were running out of time.
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Post by Christian Ward on May 29, 2018 1:26:31 GMT -5
The pain slowly receded as Derek pulled the curse off him but his muscles ached and continued to spasm long after the electricity had left his body. Christian lay on the hardwood floor, breathing heavily, as Derek stepped over him and headed to the stairs. The deafening ringing in his ears had also stopped, though there was a residual hum in the background, as if someone had turned on a television in another room. The high-pitched hum was soft enough that Derek’s words could be fully heard, but Christian couldn’t think beyond the pain at that moment. He would come back to it later, when he was able to move of his own volition.
After a long while, Christian was able to pull himself from the floor. He ached all over and trudging the stairs down to the kitchen was like having glass shoved between each joint of his body. He needed something to soothe the pain and he needed to think. Stepping into the kitchen, it had not been touched. The fight for Diana hadn’t made it here and the only mess to be seen was a sink full of dirty dishes. Peters and Nash weren’t as worried about keeping a tidy house as Christian was, apparently. Christian walked right passed the sink and pulled open a cupboard. He moved a few small bottles around until he found a pain potion. Pulling the stopper, Christian took a decent sized swig without measuring it out. Next. he pulled a bottle of scotch and a glass from a neighboring cupboard and walked over to the breakfast table. He set the items on the table and fell into a chair. His head sunk into his arms.
He thought back to his newly recovered memories. Diana had taken the potion, too, on the ship. The mark’s girlfriend was planning to drug her boyfriend and Christian and Diana had killed them and taken over their romantic getaway cruise. He struggled to remember why they were staying on the ship after completing the mission. but that part was a blur. What he could remember was that Diana had also been drugged that night that they were married. Christian groaned at the new evidence that had been locked inside his head all this time. But there was more of their little holiday that Christian had relearned aside from getting high and tethering each other’s life force to the one another, or the several rounds of intense shagging that followed Christian’s first command as a bound man. Someone else had come to attack their target, Ling. Someone else was attempting to off the board members, but who? And why?
The rest of his memories of that time were still fuzzy. He didn’t remember killing the other board members. but he remembered thinking they were making good progress by the time of the cruise ship murders. Something more recent was also nagging at his memory and so Christian turned his focus to Derek’s last words before he left the older wizard crumpled on the floor of his own home. The bounty orders had been changed to capture. That was never a good sign. Kill orders were straight forward; there was a problem and you had it eliminated. Capture orders meant there was some use for the target, it meant that whatever it was they needed from Diana, it would only lead to more sh*t.
Determined to get to the bottom of this, to find Diana and ensure they would both come out of this alive, Christian stood and moved to his office, leaving the scotch untouched on the kitchen table. In his office he pulled out two scraps of parchment. On the first, he wrote only two words; be ready. On the second, he summoned Derek in a matter of fact sort of way, offering no apologies but insisting they had little time to argue about it. Christian called his own from the back garden and sent him off with both letters. Then Christian stood and returned to the kitchen where he poured himself a modest drink and waited.
Tag: Derek Burke
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Post by Derek Burke on May 29, 2018 1:42:37 GMT -5
An hour later at 1:30 in the morning Derek was back at Christian’s door, this time with Kingston in tow.
After returning to his apartment he ran through his files on Diana to uncover why the name Alessa had struck a chord.
It was during his research that he got Christian’s summons. Tosser. He was done with the man, and ignored it. He’d figure out how to save Diana on his own – since that was probably what the letter was for. Christian was in a hole because his life hung on the balance, but Derek couldn’t say whether or not he’d be anything but hostile, should he return.
But the answer didn’t hold any solutions. Alessa Crawford, Marcus’ older sister, was dead. Or she was supposed to be. She died seven years ago, though the circumstances surrounding her death were quite vague. “Accidental poisoning” was the official report. Could it be that Alessa wasn’t dead after all?
Finally he had remembered something else crucial to locating Diana. The only problem was that the answer lied with Christian, and not just Christian, but pre-obliviated Christian, which only gave them one solution.
After the night he had, Derek didn’t mind the idea of torturing his ridiculously stubborn “friend”, but he imagined that Christian might see things differently. Even though Christian had summoned him, Derek wasn’t going back without the appropriate muscle in case Christian was opposed to being tortured.
Kaden Kingston left home several years ago a wealthy pureblooded playboy. He returned as someone else entirely, more beast than man. Those who knew him assumed it was PTSD and assumed he’d return to his more cavalier ways after a while. He had begun to come around, but for the most part it was a ruse. Kaden was more dedicated than ever to hunting and punishing the men and women in his father’s files, it was his father’s dying wish, and in spite of the tortures he faced on the island before being rescued, he held on to his father’s vengeance.
He was implacable and unmovable, but even he made mistakes. One of those mistakes was Diana Crawford.
Derek had shown up at the Kingston Estate – Kaden’s actual residence – a little after one. Twenty minutes of arguing, near blows, and misconceptions tentatively cleared, Kaden was ready to get some answers of his own. If what Derek believed was the truth, then he was partially responsible for what had happened, and regardless of Diana’s guilt, she was pregnant with an innocent child. The idea weighed heavily on Kaden’s already weary soul. It might be too late, but he owed it to the Ward family to try.
“Evening Ward.” Derek said entering the house whose door was still hanging on the hinges. Derek strode confidently in the room, his eyes on the target, his wand ready, and without hesitation he cursed one of the most dangerous men in Europe for the second time that night, but it would not be the last.
“Sorry mate.”
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