TITLE Laura Giles Part 4/?
AUTHOR Laura Curtis
PAIRING None so far
RATING PG/PG-13 maybe
SUMMARY The reason why Rupert hates Ethan most of all.
DISCLAIMER Don’t know them, dammit. Don’t own them, darn It, just the ones I make up. Just having fun with them.
(Author’s Note: Most of it not a happy chapter, but necessary)
(This denotes Rupert and Laura’s psychic talk)

Thank you to my sister Helen for Beta Reading it and helping to make my words flow correctly.
Please send feedback!

March 16, 1979

Laura looks out the window into the darkening sky. She hears her father coming up behind her and turns to him. “He’s not coming, again, is he?”

“No I’m afraid not. I left several messages where he said that we could reach him, but they said that they haven’t seen him for days.”

“What’s happening to him? There are times I can’t feel him through the bond we have.”

“That Ethan has corrupted him. I’m afraid that he has fallen into the lure of dark magic. I only hope and pray that he wakes up before it is too late. Magic can be addicting.”

“I pray also. I want my brother back, I can’t lose him.” Looking down she continued in a small voice, “I don’t want to be alone again.”

Robert walked up to her and hugged her. “You won’t be my dear. In his heart he will always love you. It’s just the lure of the magic. It can blind people to what is really important to them. Now come down for dinner. I had cook fix your favorite meal. And Elizabeth has come to wish you a Happy Birthday.”

Laura nodded her head. “I’ll be down in a minute father, I want to freshen up a bit.”

Ten minutes later Laura appeared in the dining room refreshed and happier appearing. When she saw Elizabeth she went up to her for a hug.

“Thank you for coming tonight.” she smiled.

“You’re welcome my dear. You know I think of you as a granddaughter, so how could I not be here. Now before your father yells at me for doing this, open your present from me.”

“Elizabeth, she should wait until after supper.”

“Oh nonsense Robert, now is fine. Go ahead my dear.”

Laura opened the small box that Elizabeth have her and inside was a beautiful gold necklace. And when she saw what was on it, Laura smiled widely for the first time that day. For on the necklace was a vine with three roses. But it also brought tears to her eyes. Roses were the symbol Rupert used to associate his bond with Laura.

“Why are you crying all of a sudden my dear?” Elizabeth asked.

“It’s a beautiful necklace Elizabeth. Thank you. I will always treasure it.” She looked down at the necklace. “When Rupert and I did the sibling bond, he told me that he would always associate roses as his part of the bond. Now, in a way, I’ll always have him with me.”

“You’re welcome my dear. As you know, I have no children so I kind of ‘adopted’ all of you children of the town as my own. This necklace was a gift from my grandmother to me on my 15^th birthday and I had hoped to pass it onto one of my granddaughters. So I am giving it to you. You must promise that you will pass it on to one of your granddaughters, whether you have any of your own or not.”

Laura’s eyes widened at hearing Elizabeth’s story. “Oh Elizabeth, I will. I promise that I will pass it on.” Then she hugged her again.

They sat down and had a pleasant evening. During dinner Robert informed them that he had to go to London in two weeks time to visit the Council Headquarters. Laura asked him if she could go with him. At first he said no but after further talks he agreed to let her go.

Later that night, in her room, Laura looked out of her window again and said a prayer. “Dear God. Please protect my brother and help him find his way home. I miss him so much.” Then she sent out a message along the bond. (Rupert, I hope you can hear me. I miss you. Today was my birthday but it wasn’t the same without you. You feel so distant from me. Father and I are coming to London in two weeks. You know where we will stay. If you can, come and see me, please? I Love You. Goodnight.)

In a rundown room in a shady part of London, Rupert laid on a mattress coming down from a magic high. All of a sudden he heard the voice of an angel speaking to him. He knew he should know who was speaking to him but his magic fuddled brain couldn’t put the pieces together. The anguish in the words made him want to reach out to reassure who ever it was. But he couldn’t, he was too worn out from the spells to even reach the edge of the mattress. And for some reason it broke his heart. But he would worry about that tomorrow, tonight he just needed to sleep. And so he fell asleep and dreamed of a little girl with brown hair and blue eyes surrounded by roses that made him happy. When he awoke the next afternoon he completely forgot the voice of the angel and the dream from the night before.

Two weeks later.

Robert and Laura walked into the Council building. She was always in awe of the place. It held so many books that she wanted to read. But today she didn’t have the time. Father would be busy with the Council so she was going to go do some shopping and site seeing before she had to be back at the hotel they were staying at. With a quick exchange of money, a hug, and a promise to be careful, Laura turned and left. She was going to her favorite store to shop. At first she thought about taking a taxi but decided not to because to get to the store she would have to go through the section of town where Rupert lived. And she hoped that maybe she would run across him. So off she went.

When she got to his section of town she started looking around everywhere hoping to see him. It was after a few blocks when she felt something. It was like something was pulling on their bond, so she started following the feeling. It was three blocks later that she found what was pulling at the bond, or should I say who. There at the far end of a closed alley was Rupert. Only it didn’t look like him too much. He was dressed in shabby clothes and was in the process of giving a girl a tonsillectomy with his tongue. And right beside him, waiting his turn, was Ethan. She started running down the alley yelling for Rupert. But they were so high on a magic rush that Ethan was the only one to hear her.

“Ethan! You promised me that you would take care of him for me.”

Not recognizing her as Rupert’s sister, Ethan thought why should he wait till Ripper was done? “Ello Luv. Bit far from home aren’t you? How about you and me have a little fun just like Ripper is?” So he came up to her and started kissing her.

Laura was sickened by him and she started fighting him. Her potential strength made her stronger than him so when he kept kissing her she threw him against the wall. She yelled for Rupert again but when she got no reaction from him she got scared. Ethan started toward her again so she did the only thing she had left, she turned and ran. She only got a few feet when she felt herself suddenly frozen to the spot. She couldn’t move and Ethan was coming towards her again. She tried to yell only to find that he had done something to her voice.

“Well my pretty you won’t be doing that again. Now it’s time to have some fun.” And then he dragged her back down the alley out of sight of the opening. Just as he got her down and started taking her clothes off she felt the pull of the bond so she reached out to Rupert in desperation. (Rupert! Help me! He’s hurting me. Oh God! RUPERT! HELP ME!)

It was that plea, that scream, that woke him from his magic haze. The sound of his sister’s screams for help. As he turned in the direction of her plea he saw a sight he prayed he would never see. His sister about to be raped. All reason left him and he flew into a rage. He ran to help her. He felt the spell Ethan was using to hold her so he broke it, then he pulled Ethan off her and started beating him. He wouldn’t have stopped if it hadn’t been for the sound of her crying. That stopped him and his rage left him. He saw her huddled against the wall crying, so he went to help her up. He pulled her into a loving hug, then started to help her straighten up her clothes. But was stopped by the frightened hurt look in her eyes.

Clutching her clothes Laura backed away from him shaking her head. And in a scared voice she asked, “Who are you? What have you done with my brother?”

“Laura.” When Rupert tried to get close to her, to hold her, she backed up again.

Looking down she said, “Don’t touch me.” When Rupert tried to approach her again she back away from him. “Don’t come near me.”

“Laura let me help you. Let me take you back to your hotel.”

But Laura wasn’t listening to him. She was looking at Ethan laying on the ground. Then she walked up to him and after a moment she kicked him as hard as she could. Turning back in general direction of Rupert she said, “I’m leaving.” As she started for the entrance of the alley she felt Rupert following her so she stopped. “If you follow me, I’ll hurt you.” Once she got to the alley entrance she turned one last time and looked at him. With tears in her eyes she said, “Goodbye RIPPER!” Then she turned and ran all the way back to the hotel.

When she got back to her room she felt Rupert trying to reach her through their bond so she closed herself off from him. Then she started crying.

When her father came back to the room later she was still crying. He tried to get her to calm down to talk to him but she wouldn’t. So he just held her until she did. Once she was calmed he asked, “Laura, what happened? The desk said you came in looking like you had been mugged.”

Without even looking up at him she shook her head, “No I wasn’t mugged. Father I want to go home as soon as we can.”

“We can leave tomorrow. My business with the Council went faster than I thought. Laura, what happened to you?”

“I got a rude awakening.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.” After a moment she ask him, “Can you help me do something though?”

“What do you want my help with?”

In a pained voice she said, “I saw Rupert today and it was a side of him I don’t want to see again.”

After a moment more Laura looked up at her father. It was with a lost, broken look she said, “I want, no I need, to break the bond. I have to and please don’t ask why. I don’t want to see him, to talk to him. I don’t even want him contacting me that way. Can you help me do it?”

“Are you sure you want to? It won’t be easy. You could just ignore him and yet keep the bond between you two.”

“No Father. I want him to hurt as I’ve been hurt. Breaking the bond will do that. He needs to feel the loneliness I’ve felt recently.”

With a sad sigh Robert nodded his head. “Alright, I’ll help you, with one promise. If he ever comes to you asking for forgiveness you’ll forgive him. You two are so close, closer even than real brother and sister. I have a feeling that in the future you will need that bond to help one another. He will need you one day and you will help him just as he has helped you.”

Laura looked down and after a moments thought nodded. “Alright Father, if he straightens his life up and comes back asking me to forgive him, I will. I’ll even reestablish the bond, but not until then.”

“Alright my dear, it shall be as you ask. Stand in the middle of the room.”

Laura got up and moved into the middle of the room.

“Now close your eyes and imagine the bond like a gold thread between you and Rupert.”

As Laura did this Robert began to chant. After a minute he spoke. “Now, imagine a pair of scissors.”

Laura imagined a pair of golden scissors.

“Now this is the hard part. You have to imagine you’re using the scissors to cut the thread. Deep down your psyche will resist you. You two are bonded that deep. Be strong and cut the thread.”

Laura reached out as if she was really using scissors and began cutting the thread. Her Father was right, her psyche fought her with images of happy times but she showed it what had happened. She told her psyche of her promise and after a moment her psyche gave her permission to go ahead. But only if she left one small thread alone. One tiny thread to keep in contact with him, just in case of an absolute emergency. After all, it was her reaching through the bond to him that saved her. After a moment Laura agreed and finished cutting all but one tiny thread. When she was finished she fell to her knees and cried. At that moment she felt almost completely alone. Not since her parents deaths had she felt this way.

Robert knelt down beside her and held her until she stopped crying. “We should leave now. He’ll know something has happened, and he’ll know where we are and come looking for you. At home I can keep him out, but not here.”

Laura nodded her head. “I didn’t cut them all, my psyche wouldn’t let me. One thread remains, for emergencies. He can’t feel it but it’s there. Your right father, I need to get away from here. Let’s go home.”

So they packed and left London.

On the other side of town Rupert fell to his knees in pain. He felt an instant loss and loneliness. He knew something had happened to Laura so he went to their hotel only to find that they had left. He knew in that instant that she had broken their bond. He tried with all his might to reach her but couldn’t. He didn’t know how he would ever make it up to her or when but he decided to find a way to fix things between them. So he left and went back to his flat to try and figure things out.

A week later

Rupert was so lost and depressed that he wasn’t able to do anything. All he could do was to lay on his bed trying to reach her. He missed the bond with her, the roses. Their father refused to let him speak with her over the phone. And when he showed up at their home Robert wouldn’t let him in, even going so far to put a spell up to block him. Robert then asked, “Rupert what happened? What drove her to do this to you? You two are so close, sometimes even closer than real bother and sister.”

Rupert was surprised that she hadn’t told their father what had happened. So he hung his head and told his father everything. Then he spoke up, “I deserve what she has done. I don’t deserve to be her bother.”

Robert stepped across the thresh hold and put his hand on Rupert’s shoulders. “Give her some time son. She is deeply hurt; and not so much by what Ethan did, but the fact that she could only reach you through desperation. She had been feeling your distance for a while and the alley just brought everything to a head. I shouldn’t tell you this but she couldn’t completely break the bond with you. There is one small thread between you. But it is only for an emergency, her psyche wouldn’t let completely sever the link. Reach down deep into your psyche and feel for it. Don’t try and contact her through it, for now. Let her heal first. She’ll contact you when she is ready, I’m sure of it.”

At that moment Rupert remembered the voice of the angel he had heard. “Oh father. Her birthday, she reached out to me. I was on such a magic high, I thought an angel was talking to me. I tried to reach out to it only to find that I couldn’t. It was her.”

Rupert stood there a moment then looked up into his father’s face. “I’m going back to London for now. I have to straighten up the mess I’ve made. When I’ve fixed everything I’ll contact you and you let her know, please? I’ll wait for her to contact me. Please tell her I’m sorry, that I miss her and the roses, she’ll know what I mean.”

“I know about the roses. Elizabeth gave her a necklace for her birthday, when she started crying we asked her why and she told us. It is a rose vine with three blooming roses on it. She, in a way, has you with her all the time now. She is so lost at the moment that the only thing that gets her through each day is her training. Just give her the time.”

“I will father. I’d better go.”

And as Rupert started to turn to leave Robert stopped him. “Take care son. Magic is a hard addiction to give up. If you need help, call Elizabeth and she’ll contact me. I’ll help you any way I can.”

“Thank you Father. Goodbye.”

Rupert left to go back to London to turn his life around. But it was not to be for another year. When he got back to London he was met by his friends Randall, Deirdre, Thomas, and Phillip. Ethan was with them as well. He didn’t trust Ethan anymore but he was still so depressed from his visit that they had no problem convincing him to do a spell to raise a demon. The high from raising Eyghon was so incredible that he forgot his problems. It was only after Randall’s death a year later that he really started to turn his life around.

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