*at Marius’ office in Romanus Manor*
I called Armand to talk about the events that occurred in Paris that had Armand so fumed with anger. Locking him and Va’lis in the gun cellar when Maharet announced they had taken his wife in addition to Carrie had been a wise move on my part, but perhaps my execution of it all was not. There is too much history between Armand and I that lingers and interjects in our relationship. Where as with Va’lis, we have more of a clean slate. I knew this conversation was not going to go well when he walked in and immediately said, “I can’t expect an apology from you now can I?” To which I replied, “I had to keep you from going after them on your own.”
I loaded our car up; Merida changed to the back seat, she was holding Astoria’s head in her lap trying to soothe her. Astoria had been beaten and then nearly drained. We had our medic trying to infuse her with transfusions of human blood but nothing was working. Her mortal body was just too weak. She was hemorrhaging internally from her injuries. Merida was now caressing her face and hair while she let out a tear or two. She loved Astoria for her kids loved her just the same.
Marius had given us both clear instructions. We are to wait for the rest of the family before attempting to start our recon mission. Yeah, right? Like Va’lis was going to wait. Him and I had formulated a great plan to confirm that Carrie was being held in that old familiar place. The Tower of London is a historic place having held many Queens prisoner before their beheadings took place in the famous courtyard. More notably the death of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII. The tourism to the place was a great cloak to what really was held behind closed walls. The Draconians had effectively purchased the rights to the tower through various entities and ghost corporations, as they did with much of the territory they held. It is heavily guarded of course, but it does have nooks and crannies that modern day prisons do not. Luckily, we had a full map of the place. 