Donovan Plot - Part Two “Why haven’t you found them yet?” Dahlia demanded. It had been a week since her children had been taken from her. They were trying to locate Kian’s uncle who knew the most about the Nikoleav family, but when he had heard that the children had been taken, he had fled out of fear of persecution. Dahlia knew exactly what she would do to him if she ever had the chance. That man was the reason her husband was dead and her children were missing. She would make him suffer as they had.
“We have leads, Dahlia.” Liam stated. Since he had taken her to the Donovan Estate in Ireland, she had been causing quite the scene within the home. Liam didn’t blame her. She had ran off with the children for their own protection and she had done a fine job of it for over ten years. She blamed the Donovans for her life being this way and she was correct. But Father and Grandfather felt that she had betrayed them by running instead of allowing them to protect her outright. He supposed the shame that came with having a son for a werewolf had caused her great fear and turmoil. It wasn’t like society would have been so accepting of Jax so why would the Donovans? “Please be patient.”
“Patient?” Dahlia spat. “My children are missing! And the full moon is going to come soon. If Jax hasn’t taken his potion… if they are out there....” Dahlia couldn’t get herself to say it, but she didn’t have to. Liam knew what would happen if Jax wasn’t found soon. He pulled Dahlia into a hug and for a moment, she fought against him. He had been a stranger to her since the moment his brother was murdered. He couldn’t blame her for her distrust in him and in the Donovan family. But he did love her and he did love his niece and nephew. He would do all that he could to make sure they found their way home again.
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The spell hit him again and pain ripped through his body. Jax screamed in agony as they used the unforgivable against him. His body convulsed beneath the spell as he felt every nerve feel as though it were being set on fire. He thought the monthly change had been the most agonizing pain in the world, but he had been wrong. This… this was so much worse.
Every day they did this to him. Every day they brought him into this cell and tortured him. They demanded information from him that he did not have. He tried to tell them. He tried to say that he didn’t know who his father’s uncle was. He didn’t know where he kept the magical item that they were looking for. The item that the man had stolen from them. Jax didn’t understand why they didn’t believe him.
They tortured him just long enough that he felt as though he was losing his mind but they always gave him enough rest before they started all over again. They didn’t want him to go crazy because that would not serve their purpose. So today, like the many before, he laid on the ground sobbing from the pain. His throat raw from his screams. His body weakened by the spell. He just wanted it to all end. Why were they doing this? Why wouldn’t they just kill him already?
The men paused in their torture and began to whisper quietly to one another in their native tongue. There was a hint of annoyance in one of their voices and Jax knew that wasn’t a good sign. Finally, the whispering ended and the man who had cursed Jax long ago stepped forward, a smirk playing his lips as he looked down at Jax, “Bring the girl down.” The man said in his Russian accent. “Maybe he’ll talk when she is the one screaming.”
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“We found him!” Liam exclaimed, entering the study with his cousin, Bartley, behind him. Dahlia remembered him from the wedding and the few family parties she had gone to with her husband. Bartley was much younger than they were, but he was the newest family Healer, so he was important to the cause just in case… well, just in case.
“Have you?” Dahlia asked, looking suspiciously between the two men. Liam’s triumphant look seemed to suggest that he really did mean it.
“He is in a meeting with Father. We’ll find them, Dahlia. We’ll find them!”
“Take me to him.” Dahlia said evenly despite the rage that was consuming her. When she had someone to blame for all of this, her fear and turned to pure rage and she wanted him to know exactly how she felt about putting her family into peril.
“Dahlia…” Bartley began to protest, but she cut him off.
“Take. Me. To. Him.” She demanded, the coldness in her usually warm features caused both men to pause and shiver with apprehension. “I deserve to see his face once more.” Neither men said anything but both nodded and led the way out of the study.
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“Please stop this!” Jax begged, tears streaming down his face as he helpless watched his sister withering in pain on the floor. Two of the men were holding him back, but even if they hadn’t, he was too weak to do much more than that after hours of torture they had put him through.
His reaction only caused a laugh from the older werewolf. He pointed his wand at Gia and with a flick of it, her cheek slip open, blood flowed freely from it. He repeated this several times, opening gashes on her shoulder, across her abdomen, on her thigh, and a shallow one across her neck. WIth each new wound, Gia screamed in agony as her skin was torn open. Jax could see the amusement in the eyes of the men. They weren’t doing this for information. They were doing this for fun. It didn’t matter what they said to them, there would never be an end to this.
“Why?” Gia asked, her voice shaky and weak. They hadn’t given them much food since they had taken them, making these sessions in the basement so much more difficult to endure. With their body in constant starvation, they tended to black out or lose themselves in some way. Jax could tell his sister was reaching her limit. He was stronger than her. They would break her if he didn’t stop them.
To answer her, the Russian used the Cruciatus curse on her once more. He held her like that, screaming and thrashing about, for several minutes before finally putting an end to it. “Why, my dear little girl, because I can.”
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The sound of impact created from her hand hitting his cheek was loud and echoed through the office. His outcry and whimper followed her. Dahlia thought she would feel some satisfaction in slapping him with all of her strength, but instead all she felt was the sharp sting of it in her hand and an emptiness in her heart. But her anger was still present. She could see the fear she bestowed upon him reflected in his eyes. “You coward!” She shouted at him. “You run away after causing so pain to my family instead of staying and fighting for your family?” Dahlia exclaimed. “You are a disgrace to your very name!”
Fergus shrank down with every word she spoke until he finally conceded and moved so that he was standing behind his brother, Deaglan. His brother, Kian’s father, looked annoyed, but he ignored Dahlia’s outburst and continued on with the meeting. “Fergus was saying that the Nikoleav family have several properties located throughout Russia and a handful across Europe. It’ll take time and resources to locate the correct one. We have to be careful or else they’ll catch on and move them.”
“We can pull some strings.” Liam added.
“We are running out of time. We’ll send the first group out tonight.”