When Svetlana had gone out, Anatoly stayed with the girls. He'd entertained them by telling them stories, much like he always did. Today's story featured the usual, a princess taken captive by an evil ogre and a handsome knight coming to her rescue. As much as the girls always loved his stories, they started to get antsy and wondering where Svetlana was. Glancing at the time, Anatoly realized that Svetlana should have been back by now. It was very unlike her to be late. For a few minutes, he was trying to think of what to do. He was going to go find her, of course, but who would watch the girls? He couldn't leave them unsupervised. Florence watching them was out of the question, mostly because Svetlana would murder him for that. He could have asked Elle, but again that might not be a wise decision. Which more or less left Freddie. The two didn't get along on their best days, but it would be the better choice. So he asked Freddie to watch them.
Once that was settled, Anatoly set out to trace Svetlana's trail. He seriously hoped if she was in trouble that it was the human kind of trouble, not demons or whatever else lurked around in this place. He could handle human transgressors, not demon ones. He walked along the path he thought she'd taken, given she'd said where she was going. He kept his eyes and ears open, looking around every corner and checking out every nook. He'd gotten better at getting around the city, mostly thanks to his taking walks daily around it. And now he was putting that to use in finding Svetlana. As each moment went by, his pulse quickened, knowing and fearing she was in trouble.
Truth be told, he still loved her, but with everything that happened after Molokov came into their lives, he wasn't so sure they could bridge the distance between them. And he knew that was his own fault. He'd made many mistakes and hurt her time and time again, but in the end when he'd won, he had done it for her. He knew that he needed a high-standing position in order to keep Molokov away and protect his family, but she hadn't seen it that way. Which he'd expected. No one knew him better than Svetlana, but perhaps with the years of growing distant, he'd changed too much for her to realize what he was really doing. But now being in this world, away from the troubles of their own, he had begun to wonder if they could have a second chance together. To bridge the great void between them.
Then suddenly, he heard something. Stopping, he turned his head and listened. He heard voices and what sounded like someone assaulting someone else. Frowning deeply, he turned down the alley he heard the sounds coming from and he saw the men attacking Svetlana. A rage came over him like he hadn't felt since he'd first rescued Svetlana twelve years ago.
"Hey, leave her alone!" He exclaimed angrily. Taking a quickly glance around, he saw a two-by-four lying nearby and he picked it up, then he rushed the man that was on Svetlana and cracked him on the back of the head causing the board to splinter and crack.