"Seriously, I'm on lab duty until these damn things heal up." Drew huffed falling into the rounded booth table.

"I'm with Sir. Turi, Danvers, you'd kill yourself before taking a moment for yourself." Azrael commented taking the menu from in front of him. "Take the time and rest. You'll be out before long.

Davina nodded. "Sorry girlie, agreed. You do take risks."

"I get it," Drew rolled her eyes. "I can still be frustrated about it. Old habits die hard. I'm just upset I'm not the one down in the basement with the shovel. I love the field work."

"We haven't found anything more exciting if that helps." Davina offered. "Nothing major like the explosion, or the stairs themselves. It's been small inch by inch these last few days. My hands hurt from the small shovel. Az here has made the order clear, too many risks of blowing things up. You'll be back out before we make much progress at this point. The mapped out area still buried under ground could take us years at this rate."

"Ciao, are you ready to order?" The waitress stopped in front of the table.

"Thanks for trying to assure me." Drew patted Davina's hand and turned back to her menu. "I'll take the fish and house salad please."

The waitress got everyone else before leaving.

Drew stared beyond Azrael's head, where, guests came and went from the small restaurant. It wasn't the fact she was in the lab that bothered her. She knew a good portion of her time would be in and out of there for the rest of her life. It was just she would like to make the decision herself. She was bitter the choice was made for her. Orders like this were rare and she hated feeling like a child.

"If you want an excuse to leave the lab, I need an errand ran for some schematics and books. They are in City Halls archives, and down in the university library. It'll get you out of the labs for some time." He interrupted her moping.

"I can do that, text me what you need and I'll head down after lunch here. While I'm at it might as well get myself a few sources I need for a few artifacts Kingston has brought up. Did you know they have a Tibetan Longshan piece? They are specific pottery pieces where they burnt the pots specifically. Oh, to add, did I tell you he also almost killed us?"

Davina perked up at that. "How?"

"Witch's bottle. He had it up for cleaning and opening. I put that thing directly where it belonged into the 'must be reburied' pile. Damn man wants to curse us. The weird part though was the pot. So I might go through some trading logs if they have anything for it. It's a long shot, but a Longshan pot is so out of sorts. Why would they have it." She rambled on.

"I'm sure you'll enlighten us to what it's doing so far out of its origin." Az smiled.

"I'm holding you to that. You will listen to my rant." Drew laughed.

"It's been an option this whole time to not do so?" He drawled.

She tossed a napkin at him laughing. "Cheeky bastard."

She made her way through the halls of the university to the Library. She'd scoured the shelves below of the archives. It'd turned up nothing for her on what she was curious of. A bit deflated on not having answers she decided to move on. Az had requested some books and she didn't want to be passed closing time of the library.

She knew there was a large chance of coming back empty handed in her quest for knowledge. Especially with a private job such as this. A rich family might not have had everything handed to the city on what exactly they possessed. They were the elite family over the area. A few people could be paid off and information conveniently lost. It irked at her. She wanted to desperately know why the Longshan piece was in an old manor. It wasn't luxurious. Why was it here?

She picked up a few history books on the eastern Asian trading routes to remind herself of time lines she was dealing with. One part of her brain yelled at her to drop it. She was here at the request of some private philanthropist, dig up an old family property and move on. He was certainly paying her enough not to say or question his actions. What would he know of his families histories anyways. He wouldn't know every little thing. What the manor held wasn't her business on how it got there.

Another part of her, the archeologist, in her screamed to figure out the answer. It's what she'd dedicated over half of her life on. The urge to find out what exactly was what, and the why. The more she looked for resources on her current subject of curiosity, the more she was lured by the siren's song.

"Either you have snuck off early, or you are working quite late." A smooth voice mused.

Drew jumped slightly, the hairs on her neck prickled at his words. She fought to keep the grin off her face as she turned towards Aro Turi.

Focus on the devil, seems to summon him. She thought tapping the ground was what brought Hades from his layer.

Leant on the book case behind her he was posed, hands in his pockets. His button down undone on the top few, tie gone, and jet black hair loose around him. The vest open and arm sleeves rolled to above the elbow.

Her face heated. Did the man need to find every subtle way to be more attractive? She mentally cursed. He wasn't even unprofessional in his attire, he was a bit more disheveled —what she would give to cause it —it still distracted her.

"Sir Turi, evening. What brings you to the university library? Surely your private collection would rival this?"

"How ever did you know?" He paused brow raised.

"You have that air of 'I know everything' about you." She replied turning back to the books. She didn't need to see the smug grin on his face.

"I am highly educated," he agreed. "Experienced in many subjects. My own many degrees. A patron of the arts and sciences."

"You're humble sir," she snickered.

"I hold pride in it,"

She glanced back to him where he shrugged to her. A lazy grin spread across his face.

She turned back to the shelves shaking her head at him. A giggle slipping through. He was absolutely ridiculous. Butterflies erupted in her stomach.

"You evade my question though doctor," He pointed out. "Are you here working late or were you naughty and snuck out?"

"Who sneaks away from work to a library?" She ignored him calling her naughty, shooting a look over to him challenging him.

He only stared undisturbed by her attempt to dance around the subject.

"Okay plausible for it to be me. This case, no. I'm just finishing grabbing a few resources Dr. Azrael requested and some for myself."

"Dr. Azrael could not get his own?"

"I offered to get them since I'm off field work until my legs heal." She cut him off of that line.

"Just because you are on lab work, does not mean you are to over work yourself." He said, voice taking on a warning tone.

She turned on her heel to him. Books secured. "Well it's a good thing I have only my own books to get and they aren't work related. So sir, I'm off the clock."

"Cheeky woman," he mused.

"Merely appeasing my very concerned boss."

"Then tell me what you seek and I can help you. If they are personal titles." He stepped up to her side.

She looked down in her arms. She was looking for some ancient dynasty works and a romance to read… one she really didn't want her boss of all people getting for her. Not when her current fantasies seemed to be hinting at him. She wouldn't be able to look at him let alone continue to work for him if he found out.

"Lord of the Rings. I'm just wanting to reread it. It's one of my favourites." She rattled off.

He nodded and turned to go looking for it. She took off to the romance section. She grabbed a random one and slid it between a few reference works. She just exited when Sir Turi strode towards her with a tower of books.

She paused. It was the trilogy she sent him for right?

"I was not sure if you'd read some of the unfinished works of Tolkien and the others." He explained.

"No… I hadn't, I'll definitely read those. Thank you! Seriously. Well I'll just take those and go check out."

"Allow me to help you through the self check out." He took the tower and then some from her.

He swept through the aisles to the front where a few students were lined up and brought her to one of the computers. She only followed in quick pursuit. She huffed quickly catching her breath. The man could run. Being shorter by nearly a good foot made it hard to keep up.

"Your library card," He held out his long fingers to her.

"It's with my lanyard ID." She put her pile down. She quickly scanned her card from around her neck.

She watched in quick succession as he scanned each book in record time. He didn't seem to react to seeing the romance that he put in order. She took a reusable bag out of her pocket. She'd brought it from her office after lunch.

"You're well prepared." He commented putting them into the bag.

"Thanks, I try to be environmentally conscious." She shrugged. "I should drop these off before I head home. I will see you around Sir,"

She went to leave when he caught her hand gently. Cool fingers touching the inside of her wrist had her turning back. She tilted her head.

"This next weekend, are you busy?" He questioned.

"Not to my knowledge,"

"Would you accompany to a gala? A few charities and business are hosting a gala for the arts. I was wondering if you would come, as my date? This one in particular is at the local museum. Being one of the top donors I am expected to attend the event. There is an ancient Egyptian exhibit opening I'm sure you'd enjoy."

Drew schooled her face quickly from the shock. She made sure her jaw didn't hit the floor.

He was asking her on a date? She pursed her lips. What?

"I —I don't know… Sir, that seems inappropriate… you're my boss. Does that not violate work rules?"

Aro stepped closer to her. "It is after work hours, it's a charitable event. While I do plan on introducing the collection eventually it will not be for some time. I do not believe it counts as a work event."

"I don't have anything to wear—"

He cut her off holding his hand up. "I will cover the expenses, allow me."

"Sir—" He was barely inches from her.

He slid a finger under her chin bringing her drifting gaze up to his. He smiled softly. His lashes blinking slowly around dark eyes.

Drew's stomach fluttered. Her heart slammed picking up in pace. Throat going dry. A fuzzy feeling distracting her the longer he touched her. Small sparks already sprouted from her chin down her neck straight to her abdomen.

He'd asked so nicely. His hold on her had her knees shaking threatening to give in. A slow soft smile curled his lips. How easy it'd be to lean forward.

A throat cleared behind her.

She exhaled sharply. Coolness rushed down her body. She stepped back.

"Alright." She ran her clammy hands down her capris. "I will go. I should be heading home."

His fingers ghosted over her chin to her cheek before he pulled away.

"Of course, be safe, I will see you tomorrow. You are granted the day Friday to go shopping for an outfit. It is a black tie event. A card will be dropped off tomorrow." He advised.

Footsteps sounded on the wooden floor approaching them. She turned half way towards where the sound was coming from. She had no time to object to him paying for the outfit.

In a simple black pair of slacks and a grey button up with a vest on. An overly tall, broad shouldered man stood. He looked to be in his mid twenties to late like she was. His dark brown hair kept back at the base of his neck. Thick arched brows hooded deep dark eyes. He was beyond pale. Even though his yellow undertones showed he'd been taupe if he tanned.

His nose was straight on a squared face with a sharp jaw. Thin lips that were crooked in amusement. He seemed to be watching her as she studied him. His hands in his pockets.

"Brother," Aro greeted looking past her. "You have graced us with your presence above archive level. How wonderful. Dr. Danvers, this is my younger brother, Marcus."

He motioned his brother forward who stepped right up. Drew craned her head back to look up at him. The man stood nearly a foot and a half taller than her.

She gulped. The hairs on her neck were just about straightening the long she looked between the two of them. What in the hell was in the genetics for the Turi brothers?! Such Grecian statues come to life, so out of place with their beauty. It threatened to force her to her knees, and weep. Definitely not the way she wanted to be near them when on her knees.

She smacked the thought away. No. Absolutely not. Aro had just asked her on a date —charity event. No thinking of both men in such way!

The nagging in the back of her mind dared to mention Caius. For such an asshole, he too, was unfortunately gorgeous.

"Dr. Danvers? The woman Caius ranted on about for five hours the other day?" His deep tenor mused.

"A simple unfortunate greeting, seems to have left us at an impasse." She offered her hand.

He took it smoothly stepping forward. He held her gaze whilst bending at the waist to kiss the back of her hand.

"A pleasure Dr. Danvers." He smiled. "I usually take what Caius says with a grain of salt. His mood can get the best of him. I tend to let myself meet the person first."

"A brilliant idea, Sir. Turi—"

"None of that now, I am not your boss." He waved. "Please, call me Marcus."

"If you refer to me as Drew." She smirked pulled back.

Her insides fluttered further as he let a light laugh go. Such a serious dressed man, with an air of melancholy to him. Drew was grateful to see him laugh. The way Aro stared it seemed rare.

"Deal, I am afraid I must steal my brother for business. Shall we be seeing you?"

"For the time being. The project I am working on is long ways from done."

"Excellent, until then Drew. Enjoy your evening."

"Indeed Dr. Danvers, I shall be by dropping that card off tomorrow. You will be able to get a dress as you need."

"Thank you sir. I will see you hopefully soon. Good night."

"Good night." They echoed back.

Drew took off, her head swimming. Her body was fuzzy the ground threatening to greet her with how she felt.

Drew flipped on the light to her office going to check her emails before heading down to the lab. The Thursday morning barely had started, but she knew she had a few reports to do as well. They could wait, she would get to them this afternoon.

She set her coffee down on the desk to the left away from the computer.

She stopped seeing her keyboard. A small white envelop sat. Her name written in beautiful calligraphy. She carefully opened the back.

A note and a pure black credit card sat. She raised a brow seeing her full legal name written on it.

'Dear Dr. Danvers,

As promised, use this card for the expenses of the outfit and such for the gala this weekend. Do not fret about the card being paid. It will be covered by me.

Yours truly,

Aro,'

The card was issued from Volturi Enterprises.

She put the card in her lanyard card holder. She'd really not given much battle to the man paying for her to go shopping. While she had nothing to wear, it didn't mean she couldn't afford a nice outfit for a black tie event. She had her few dresses back in Toronto is all. She'd been saving her money recently so she had a nice lump sum that she rarely touched. The Turi brothers paid her quite well.

She could always not use the card and return it when she saw him next. She put the lanyard aside with the card in it. She didn't need to misplace it amongst the messiness of her bag or desk. When he said he'd pay for it, she thought maybe a prepaid card. Not a credit card in her name. Hell she didn't see why he would pay for her outfit and such in the first place. Just because he asked her to the event didn't mean he needed to pay for her.

Her stomach churning.

The idea of anyone paying for her seemed wrong. She didn't need hand outs like this. Why had she agreed to go with him to a gala? She had a no dating coworkers policy! It brought too much drama from what she'd witnessed time and time again. No dating outside her socio-economic class either. She rubbed her temples.

Last time she'd granted a date to a person who came from money and wealth, she'd regretted it. Someone raised with the golden spoon in their mouth understood so little.

Leo had been sweet when they first met in university. They had a chemistry class together. It'd changed the moment she showed up to the five star restaurant. He began to critique her outfit choice and off brand things. In hindsight she should've left then. She didn't do logos or expensive things then. She was a scholarship kid. She worked two jobs to keep a float. She couldn't spare such expenses.

Young Drew had bit her tongue while he went on and on afterwards about all the places he'd been. He boasted most of the night of what he owned and done as a kid. Like flew in a private jet to his grandparents mountain resort for a weekend to ski. How he had six cars by the time he had earned his license at seventeen. His parents owning a condo building downtown Toronto was icing on the fruit cake. She shuddered.

her thoughts forming on her tongue, burned. She wanted to say he was wasteful, entitled. She'd only nodded and pressed through until the bills came where she promptly tossed money down for her own meal and booked it without a good-bye. She avoided him for the last six weeks of classes.

She was thankful for her prepaid cell phone then. Nineteen and in her final year of her bachelor, she was more than don with him. He was only a freshman on daddy's money. Sure he was her age but they were from two different worlds.

She earned her spot in university through scholarships and government loans. She worked her ass off in the summers and breaks tutoring as many kids as she could just to put decent meals on her table and afford rent in that time. She didn't have the luxury of family to lean on. He didn't understand what it was like to have ramen for three meals for a week because a student's parent couldn't pay her that week when they lost their job.

Growing up in the system meant she had nothing of her own either to get on her feet. She was lucky to get into university so she could get out on her own as fast as she could. Her grandma wasn't rich in a single room apartment they shared with a split curtain. She'd inherited photos and books from the family. Nothing else. Her foster mom kept in contact, it didn't mean she could stay in her home past eighteen or graduation. She didn't.

She sighed putting the note from Aro aside.

She didn't need to give herself a headache before the day began.

She wasn't a kid anymore. She had her own income, a PhD in two subjects. She wasn't helpless anymore. She would be twenty seven soon.

"Morning Drew— you okay?" Davina stopped at her office door.

"I —I'm fine," she righted herself in her chair. She tossed the letter into her top drawer. "Didn't sleep well last night."

"If you're sure…" Davina looked her over.

"Do you have time tonight to go shopping with me? I got invited to a gala with someone for this weekend and—"

"Obviously! Yes! You can tell me later this afternoon. Az just texted all hands to site. We've got dead ones. Drew you're to be ready in the cooler." Davina read out from her phone.

The cooler, where they were prepared to have an old body or new if need be whilst they wait for the city coroner. She'd need to examine it to be sure what they were dealing with.

Drew felt her pocket vibrate. She fished the phone out seeing the long text from Az. A few bodies had been discovered on the site. She needed to get prepared, they were bringing it in and expecting her.

She shook her head. Duel degrees to handle bodies. Duel degrees to handle the dead. She repeated.

"See you,"

Drew finished sliding on her gloves after having donning an apron and sanitizing herself down. She made her way over to the waiting metal gurneys. She'd watched the two hands hoist a few white tarps onto the tables and opened it up for her. She had two others to help her with the identifying process.

Davina for notes, and Sienna from the university. A forensics and med student.

Drew's eyes widened as she took in what laid before her.

One a long figure was laid out and wrapped up in ancient dusty brown wrappings. Another she held off from cringing was half mummified and half decayed. She was grateful for the masks she'd made sure each assistant wore. She didn't need mouth moisture disrupting the bodies.

The last two were full skeletons from what she could see. One had her stomach dropping nothing it was a child or preteen.

"Okay, we have four specimens to examine. Dictation recorder?"

"Readied," Davina replied.

"Where do we want to begin?" She looked across to Sienna.

The younger woman's blue eyes shot up to her. She paled more than she already was.

"Can we come back to the half decaying one?"

Drew smiled. "Let's cover our guest up and uncover them when needed."

"Thanks, it's giving me the creeps."

"Partial mummies are scarier than full." She agreed going to each one and covering the tarps carefully back over the bodies. She stopped at the last one. The smallest one.

"Alright let's start with our smallest shall we?"

Both nodded.

"Date, Thursday, August 27th 2009, at 11:30 am. I am Dr. Drew Denvers, initial identification inspection of skeleton number 1 of 4 human remains found. Recovered on private Turi site on north hill, Date August 27th at,"

"7:25am," Davina piped up.

"Skeleton is well preserved from initial sight."

Sienna laid out a tape measure roughly against the lined out body.

"First measurement of the whole is looking to be 127cm, 4 feet and 2 inches, or 1.27 m. Once a further inspection is done this can change."

She picked up the skull carefully. "First observations, being made today are for determining a rough sex, age, and height. Samples will be collected to be sent off for Carbon-14 dating. So we can place when roughly the individual died."

"The spheno-occipital synchondrosis is open. The anterior intra-occipital suture is closed. Indicating we have a skull belonging to a child older than seven years old, and younger than 11 years old. As the spheno-occipital synchondrosis is open, this area can close from ages 10.5 years to 16 years old."

She placed the skull back gently. She made her way down to the pelvis.

As expected she found a rather small pelvis.

"Evidence in pelvis, puberty had not been reached when individual 1 died. Subtle indications of narrow sub pubic angle. Lack of ventral arch. ischiopubic ramus is flatter and a bit blunt than expected in a female. Evidence shows skeleton one is a Male. End recording."

Davina clicked the recorder off. "It's a child…"

"Young male, Sienna will you collect the samples needed to do a carbon dating test. We'll need photos of the body and the bones dusted as best we can. We'll reassemble the skeleton on the X-ray and other scans."

They prepared to move onto the next gurney.