Hey All! I did it! I finally finished the chapter that was blocking me. It only took me four years! It must be some kind of a record.
SHINI! Now you have to keep writing Dark Roses II
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Inhale
Things aren't that bad. You've only been abusing yourself for the last month or so and you've had some fairly compelling reasons for doing it too. Scrap that, not going to stand up in court.
Exhale
Stupid mind relaxation exercise. how do they expect my mind to turn off with so much going on in the world at the moment. I still have the family of four to relocate by next week and... no wait, side tracked again
Inhale
Its not like I have a normal life. Sebastian is going to be here in less than 24 hours and he expects me to have slept. Considering the sleep debt I've racked up it should be easy to drop off.
Exhal....Stuff this, where are those sleeping pills.
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Serina was driving. She enjoyed driving, it was a freedom that she had been unable to entertain while her father controlled her life. He did not let her drive or borrow the car and the one time she had asked he hit her so hard he drew blood. So Serina had learned to drive at school with her drivers ed teacher and had gotten her license by the finest margin. Judging by the way James was hanging onto the arm rest on the door of his car she was out of practice.
"Turn up here, and slow down you'll want to avoid the valet parking area, we're going to go in the back." She frowned, because James really hadn't told her where they were headed, just handed her the keys to his car and told her it was Acolyte business. He looked quite serious and hadn't cracked a single joke in the whole time they drove to wherever they were going.
"Tell me where we are going." She had demanded, expecting him to tap the side of his nose and say "you'll see" instead he had pursed his lips at her and given her a short answer.
"Meeting, Acolyte Business, you'll understand when we get there". In truth the mysterious way he was conducting himself was pissing her off. He'd been quite open with her up until now and she was used to having her questions answered. But she could wait. If he was going to play the sudden silence card, she could play it right back at him.
James motioned with his hand "Turn here, into the alley and follow it all the way down" Serina indicated and turned his silver convertible into the alley, missing scraping the car on the corner of a warehouse by an inch. James didn't react to her driving, They followed the one way alley down to the end of the building on the other side of the warehouse and he motioned with his hand "turn right and stop near the voice box. You'll want to push the little blue button, let me do the talking" Serina had come to the end of her tether.
"fine" it was a one word answer and she snapped it at him to show that she was not in the mood for the way in which he was acting. Despite the homicidal thoughts running through her head she did as he asked, pulling up next to what looked exactly like a fast food outlet box, rolling down the window and leaning out to push the blue button.
Immediately a voice responded, coming out of the box as clear as day. "Yes? may I help you?" The woman who responded sounded very professional, her no nonsense tone put Serina on edge. James shucked his seat belt and half crawled over Serina, crowding her personal space to be closer to the box. He rested one hand on the door of the car and the other hand on Serinas' shoulder speaking cheerily
"Hey Elizabeth, it's James, Cathryn around?" Serina shoved him in the ribs to try and shift him from resting against her, James shook his head and frowned at her, silently telling her to back off.
"Yes, James, I can see you on the camera now. Dr. Tear is in residence at the moment, do you have an appointment?" Elizabeths voice took on a playful tone, it was obvious to Serina that she was flirting with James via the electronic box, he flirted back and Serina shoved him in the ribs again, it didn't make her feel any better.
"Since when have I needed an appointment to crash in and see Dr Tear?" James used the same tone of voice that Elizabeth had used when using Cathryn's title, teasing her and the woman giggled as a door in the wall that Serina had not seen previously began to roll up.
"Have your driver pull in, take the stairs, I'll see you in five minutes or so." Serina shifted uncomfortably in the drivers seat, not enjoying being lounged on, and not liking being referred to at just a driver. If James noticed he didn't show it.
"No problems, see you soon" He motioned for Serina to drive through the door as he started to sit back down and the floored it around the corner, smacking him bodily into his seat, the breath involentarily escaping from his body made her feel slightly better.
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Cathryn Tear padded in bare feet into the second floor foyer of her home and club. dressed in silver pajama pants and a white singlet top, she waved sleepily at her receptionist Elizabeth. "Mornin'" Elizabeth shook her head contradicting her employer
"No Dr Tear, it's twenty three thirty. You've been asleep for a long time." If the news bothered Cathryn she didn't let it show on her face she pondered a moment, remembing her conversation with Sebastian the previous day.
"Did Ah miss anything?" Her receptionist shook her head,
"No Dr Tear, although James has just arrived to see you, he mentioned something about a meeting." cathryn had to think about that one
"What day is it?"
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Serina parked the car in silence. James jumped over the door on his side and rushed around to open her door for her, Serina glared at him and got out of the car, slapping the keys into his hand. "Thanks for letting me drive" although she thanked him, the sincerity had magically escaped from her voice. He didn't miss it and wisely did not ask what he had done wrong. "Follow me"
He led her through what looked like a loading dock at a supermarket or an entertainment center. To their right was a large sliding door marked freezer, to the left its twin marked storage. James headed towards a wide ramp that lead to a selection of doors. "Dressing rooms, stage, club?" Serina read the signs on the doors out loud "where the hell are we?" James smiled at her and headed for the door marked club
"we're at Cathryn's place. I thought you should meet her in her natural environment, we would have come yesterday but she was out of it." He pushed open the door marked club and a wave of music washed over both of them, swallowing Serinas question. She moved closer to James and screamed in his ear
"What do you mean out of it?"
James reached out to take her hand and Serina jerked back angrily. He sighed and motioned for her to follow him. Finally Serina took notice of where they were. It was a night club and there were people everywhere. A DJ took up a small part of the massive stage and at least a hundred people moved in time to the music he was playing. Tables, chairs and comfortable looking couches hugged the walls and nooks in the room and more people sat drinking and chatting over the noise. James moved through the crowd easily and Serina battled against her fight or flight response and resisted fading into the shadows to escape from the crush of human life. She had never been comfortable in crowded rooms and the club, though large, was crowded. People danced close to each other and Serina automatically began looking for the spaces in the crowd to move into. James seemed to have no problems with oving between people, smiling as he cut a path through the ocean of bodies, sort of like Moses parting the red sea. Sighing, Serina followed, sticking close so that she could make it through the gaps James created before people closed them up.
In the center of the room a four sided bar was being manned by no less than eight people, the occasional glint of light catching off bottles that were being thrown into the air by the staff. Caught in her appreciation of the skills of the staff Serina nearly lost sight of James in the crowd, but he waited for her and lead her towards a well concealed door. He pushed a button on a security panel and had a brief conversation with someone, Serina assumed it was Elizabeth. The door opened and he stepped inside, Serina following close behind.
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Cathryn had her diary open on Elizabeths desk. yes, she could have used a PDA, in fact, there was on sitting idly on her desk, she had never taken it out of the charger. It was the smell and texture of an actual paper diary that Cathryn did not ever want to part with, sort of like reading books, she was more than capable of downloading e-books but they didn't have the same feeling that a real book did. reading aside Cathryn was looking through her diary with some confusion. Elizabeth had taken to crossing off the days for her and rescheduling her apointments, Apparently she had missed a few.
"So this Acolyte meeting was the one that was supposed to happen last week but I missed it?" the tone of her voice was full of disbelief, had she really been that out of it.
"Yes Dr Tear, I realised that you were not going to be able to attend and took the liberty of calling all of the attendees for you to make a new time." Cathryn frowned, not liking the idea of Elizabeth calling the acolytes, she frowned at the secretary.
"And when did you reschedule it for?" Elizabeth smiled,
"At twenty three forty five, today." This was not good news,
"when were you planning on telling me this?" Elizabeth's smile dropped at the tone of her employers voice her smart remark dying in her throat.
"I emailed you an meeting update, did you not get it?" Cathryn placed her hands on her hips, annoyed that Elizabeth would pull this on her.
"If I got it, would I be asking you if I had a meeting?" she shook her head in disappointment, "we will talk about my schedule and why you are not allowed to change things later, I need to go and have a shower, or something" Cathryn padded out of the foyer back into the rooms that she kept at the club, there was something about the way she walked that stopped Elizabeth from mentioning that she also had a meeting with her uncle.
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James and Serina arrived at the top of the stairs, he opened the door for her and held it open, she brushed past him and glared at they young blonde woman who seemed to be smiling her head off at James. James bowed to her
"Greetings Elizabeth, how are you this fair eve?" The young woman giggled and Serinas' glare increased, she crossed her arms over her chest and sank into one of the cream coloured couches in the foyer.
"I'm well thank you James. You are a bit early for the meeting, might I get you something to drink?" The blonde only had eyes for James, she seemed to have written Serina, in her dark clothing off as hired help, James had picked up on the fact as well.
"A herbal tea for me please," He made a real show of turning to Serina "what would you like to drink Serina?"
That was when Elizabeth made her first mistake. Waving her hand in the air she said "oh, I'll show her where the security coffee machine is, she can help herself." Serina fixed Elizabeth with a glare and said very curtly "I am not thirsty." There was a warning in her voice and the blonde woman took a very quick breath glancing at James.
"Is this young lady the new Acolyte?" Her voice was whispered, almost awed, actually if Serina knew any better she would have sworn that the blonde sounded jealous. James nodded once in reply and repeated his demand "A herbal tea please, peppermint." then with a small wave of his hand he dismissed her and moved to sit by Serina, all friendly familiarity gone.
Cowed, Elizabeth left to get him his drink.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Then, breaking the silence James spoke "I hope you can forgive Elizabeth, she's usually difficult with the young ladies that come up here. She either sees them as being lower than she is, or as a threat." Serina nodded and didn't say anything.
Elizabeth bustled back into the room, carrying a silver service tray with a tea pot and two cups upon it. she set the tray down on the table closest to Serina and James and made a fuss pouring the tea. chatting idly as she did so. "I imagine that Dr Tear will be out shortly. She slept rather late and went back to have a quick shower and change I imagine." James frowned
"Cathryn forgot that she had moved the meeting." Elizabeth had the sense to look abashed.
"No, I rescheduled it for her, she didn't get the memo, not to mention Sebastian rang her and told her to get some sleep." If James was surprised by the news he didn't show it, Serina eyed the young lady and decided to see how much information she could get out of her. As if reading her mind James taped her lightly with his foot, a move that Elizabeth did not notice.
Serina cleared her throat and braved a very leading question, "She takes orders from her Uncle?" Elizabeths eyes lit up, this was something she could answer without any problems.
"Not always, she's defied him hundreds of times over little things. But then, this Halloween he did something really terrible." She looked back at the door to Cathryn's office, and, seeing it was closed, whispered, "He set her up to be raped by a member of the inner circle, but she told the man to throw himself out of a window." totally in gossip mode, Elizabeth passed on the information she knew. "so Dr Tear went off the rails a little, she worked a lot and didn't sleep or eat much. We were all really worried about her."
Serina blinked at the assult of information being handed over by someone that she would have assumed would know better than to give a complete stranger a play by play or someones mental breakdown. It was almost to easy and she followed with another question, "So, if she went off the rails, why is she still having meetings? Shouldn't she be strapped down to a bed getting the best care possible?" If Serina had gone too far in her questions it didn't affect the amount of information that Elizabeth threw at them. Her voice excited as she got to the newest information.
"Well she's been committed before, but this time they went for a different approach. It took ages and Sebastian only got through to her by threatening to call some gentleman down in New Orleans. He wants her to be coherant when he gets here for his meeting with her today." James' eyes glinted with disgust and he joined Serina in glaring at Elizabeth.
"Sebastian Shaw is coming here today? To see Cathryn," Elizabeth nodded,
"He has the appointment right after you finish with your meeting." Gossiping session over Elizabeth retired back to her desk, as she sat down the phone on her desk began to ring.
Picking up the receiver she answered pleasantly "Yes Dr Tear? Of course Dr Tear." she places the phone back in its cradle and motioned to the doors "You can go in now."
They both rose at the same time, smoothly standing and leaving the cups of tea untouched. James nodded at Serina and they crossed the carpet side by side, heading for the double doors that lead into Cathryn's office. James spoke very quietly to Serina as he opened the door. "I don't think I need to tell you that Elizabeth isn't going to be in Cathryns employ much longer." She frowned at him in confusion for a moment, and then realised that he wasn't talking about firing the woman. She smiled wickedly,
"I'll do it."
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YAY! Thats it! I did it. Finished the 10th chapter. Please read and review,
I will post again soon, I promise it won't take me four years this time.