Kurtis's Heart

It was in the middle of the afternoon at Croft Manor, and it had dried up enough after the downpour from earlier for Kurtis Trent to take the opportunity to perform some maintenance on his beloved motorcycle. As well as having an interest in mechanics, he had also learnt and picked up some repairing skills during his time in the Foreign Legion. The minutes flew by and after some tweaking and tuning of the machine it was time to test the changes on the manor's extravagant racetrack that Lara had built for her daredevil amusement. He brought the motor to the starting line and prepared the stopwatch to time the run. The record target to beat was just shy of 40 seconds set by the lady of the manor herself on the quad bike. Helmet at the ready, Kurtis counted down.

'Time to break that record and dethrone Lara from her standing…Here we go…3…2…1…Go!' The engine roared into life and the Lux Veritatis warrior accelerated directly to the first corner. He swerved round and to his delight the motorbike had gripped to the terrain well.

'So far so good, now for the next obstacle. Don't fail me now!'

Kurtis pulled to the left and revved the engine whilst staring at the ramp up ahead. He took a deep breath and then made his move. The power was instant and in seconds Kurtis was falling with style.

'Woo-hoo!' This was exactly what he needed. Sometimes the work of hunting down demons or uncovering more about his mysterious heritage does take its toll and it certainly was a nice reprieve for him to enjoy activities such as this. Although it was not a perfect landing, there was an unexpected wobble and Kurtis struggled to maintain control of the vehicle. In that moment of imbalance, the Lux Veritatis warrior had felt something strange in his heart that had never occurred before. He carried on with the course although the searing pain did not subdue at all, until he reached the finishing line with Winston holding a beverage waiting for him there.

"Looks like you're having fun this evening Kurtis, I thought you might appreciate a drink here…" A cheery Winston greeted him, but as soon as Kurtis had dismounted the bike and took off his helmet the loyal butler could see something was not right.

"Are you alright there Kurtis? You didn't push yourself too hard out there, did you?" He asked with concern. The ex-Legionnaire took a minute to catch his breath and gulped most of the drink Winston had provided.

"Phew, that's better thanks Winston. I honestly don't know what happened out there, I'd only just hit the ramp section having a wild time when this sharp chest pain appeared from nowhere. I then took my time getting back here but it is a shame as I thought I could beat her ladyship's record time with that terrific start!" Kurtis explained with a grunt at the tail end of his sentence.

"Oh, that certainly doesn't sound good. You better come inside for some rest as nightfall will be upon us shortly." Winston said, and he assisted the demon hunter where he could back into the halls of the manor.

The last time Kurtis had felt this kind of pain was in the aftermath of his battle against the mutilated Kristina Boaz back in the Strahov Fortress in Prague, though this time around he had no sharp stinger pierced behind his back that went straight through his body. It was nothing short of a miracle that he survived that encounter and lived to tell the tale. He eventually slumped onto the chair and looked towards Winston who had offered to ring a doctor, but Kurtis declined moving his thoughts towards Lara, Ayesha and Christian.

"Any word from the expedition in Egypt?" He queried the friendly butler.

"No news since they had landed at the Luxor airport a couple of days ago."

"Hmmmm…"

"You sound worried…"

"I've got my suspicions. What did you think of Christian? Had you met him before or had Lara mentioned about him in past conversation?"

"Not that I can recall unfortunately. To add to that I have not seen Lara react like that in the time I've known her."

"It is a peculiar situation plus with this sudden pain appearing out of nowhere whilst I was out on the track, I feel like something terrible has happened on their venture."

"I'll see if I can get in contact with Lara or Ayesha." Winston said and made his leave.

Kurtis was left with his thoughts playing on his mind and replayed the event that happened when Christian had come to visit that night. Miraculously the pain had now dulled, and he decided what he was going to do once Winston had reappeared showing a grim facial expression at the doorway.

"There is no answer from either of them. I've also tried calling the hotel they are staying at, and their rooms have apparently been checked out!"

The following day Kurtis packed his belongings ready to set off to Luxor International Airport. There had still been no word or update from the trio, so the Lux Veritatis warrior made the decision to see them if they were hopefully there or to discover for himself what had transpired.

"I hope you find them safe and sound. I certainly don't want a repeat performance of when we thought Lara had died on that mountain a couple of years ago." Winston began as he opened the manor gateway for Kurtis.

"Don't worry Winston, I will let you know. Leave it with me." Kurtis stated as he put his hand on Winston's shoulder to reassure his promise.

"Thank you Kurtis and good luck."

The flight to Egypt was going to be around just under six hours and the ex-legionnaire wanted to use this time productively to make notes of what he could remember Lara had shared with him of her research about the papyrus scroll just before she left and combine that with the information about the Valley of the Kings. Kurtis's mind eventually wondered off into a daydream where he imagined living a more settled life with Lara and what that would have looked like…

'Would they go on more touristy holidays abroad together? Would they partake in more activities that aligned with their interests and travel less individually? Are there going to be any children? Were they going to grow old together?' All these questions floated around his headspace. He knew that he and Lara shared similar values but what would their future be or what it would potentially look like he did not know…He wanted to discuss that topic with his wife soon after he found her.

"Gosh mate, I hope you don't mind me interrupting but you look like you got the weight of the world on your shoulders. Is everything okay there?" An older passenger next to him voiced. Kurtis chuckled and responded to him.

"Noticed huh…yeah I'm alright thanks for asking, just pondering things."

"I can see, I got a bit of advice for that if you like to hear?"

"Go ahead."

"Try not to overthink things, sometimes things in life are out of your control and you just need to go with flow and make the best of it with the time that we have. Does that relate to what you've been thinking?" The stranger quired and Kurtis smiled in response.

"Very close, I'll bear that in mind."

"Well as long as you don't leave it too late in life."

"You speak from experience?"

"That I do. Life can be a rollercoaster at times, and it will always have its ups and downs but that's how it goes. Time particularly goes faster the older you get so do not waste it overthinking when there is a world out there waiting to be explored."

"Thanks, I didn't catch your name?"

"The name's David, yours?"

"Kurtis, pleasure to meet you." He replied with a friendly handshake, and they carried on the conversation for the duration of the flight finding more about themselves.

As the plane landed and they had picked up their respective luggage's from the airport terminal, David and Kurtis went their separate ways.

'An interesting character.' Kurtis thought as he departed from the building and made his way over to a private taxi to take him to the hotel. Once he arrived it was midday and after checking in, he dropped off most of his belongings in the designated room only taking what he needed for his investigation along with a photo of Lara and then begun asking the staff if they had seen her recently or when they would have last seen her.

After hearing some of the accounts of people's recollections of seeing Ayesha, Christian and Lara herself dining a few nights ago, it became apparent that the last sighting of her from the staff was that very evening leaving with the other two. However, one did mention about spotting Lara's companion Christian with another woman who wasn't either her or Ayesha but had a striking vibe about her, and they were checking out not only from his room but on behalf of the other two too. With this knowledge, Kurtis wanted to go straight to the Valley of the Kings site and use his Lux Veritatis power to help find further clues.

The weather had surprisingly cooled down that early afternoon and the ex-legionnaire had just missed peak time at the destination. He managed to sneak away from the tour guide and the crowds to a quiet place where he was able to perform his telekinetic farsee ability. Focused on finding his beloved this fuelled his mystic power, and it wasn't long until Kurtis felt his vision leave his body and it wandered around the archaeological site like a bird's eye view. He sensed something strange in a fissure nearby, a strange aura about it… Quickly, he concentrated to bring the foresight back to his body which as usual took a lot of energy to conjure, and after all this time he still wasn't used to the shock once his senses had returned.

'It doesn't get any easier!' He thought as he took a moment to recuperate before making his way to the fissure. Luckily no one was bothered or took any notice of him as he examined the dark pit.

'Here goes nothing… if you are there my love, I'm coming for you.' And with one more glance around to ensure that he wasn't being watched, Kurtis jumped down into the abyss.