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Robert stood there, totally unaware of what was going on. He'd been in the raid, helping those who needed it and trying to recruit the sorcerers to Lux and the Light, to help them to see that not all vampires were bad and evil. It was, as usual, not going well. However he had suddenly found himself elsewhere, a totally different surrounding with two faces he'd seen before, one he knew intimately and the other he didn't particularly like and whom he knew hated him. However, he didn't have time to do anything because a demi fae appeared and began to stalk around him, grinning wickedly. He could hear words, fae words, drifting around and filtering in and out of his ears and brain - but none of them registered and stuck.

His eyes were locked onto those of the demi that was circling him, making him spin in place as it walked around and around him. The stare it fixed him with was hypnotising and even if he'd wanted to he wouldn't have been able to tear his eyes away from it. He wanted to get to her side, teleport her away to safety and then deal with the other who had summoned him and this thing together. But he was locked in place, forced into this dance with no will of his own and only the will of the demi to guide him. He stepped forwards towards it, and it mirrored him and stepped back. It stepped to the side and he stepped with it, their moves linked perfectly like ballroom dancers in competition.

The words seemed to intensify around them, everything seeming to shake and shudder - though he wasn't sure if that was really happening or if it was just whatever ritual that was being performed working. He presumed it was the latter as no ritual he'd ever done before had caused such a thing to happen. Every step he and the demi took brought them a fraction closer until they found themselves nose to nose. The last word of the ritual was uttered and a large grin appeared on the demi's face that seemed full of malice and anger. Then, it stepped forwards and into his body, making him gasp in surprise and clutch at his chest and stomach.

Something was happening within him, he could feel himself changing and he was sure he could hear things ripping. There was a pain in his mind and in his chest like searing hot pokers being pressed onto and through him to burn away a piece of him. His legs shook and he dropped to his knees, rolling onto his hip, and where he'd been standing the demi still stood. It looked down on him as he looked up at it, and it's face was a mask of disgust as it looked at his pathetic form crouched on the ground - and then it vanished with a cackle.

Robert knew what had happened, he'd been told it was to happen and had been nervously looking forward to it, not knowing quite what to expect. Little by little the pain disappeared, but there was something missing from within him. He sat there on the ground, puzzling it over as the pain continued to disperse and vanish - leaving him with that hole burned into his soul. His mind had cut her off the moment she'd betrayed him, cast him out and killed him. However now the demi had done what he couldn't and cut him from her physically and spiritually too.

He knew where it was headed, why it had cackled. It needed to visit her, it needed to visit all those he'd turned and that they'd turned. It needed to visit all those who had once called him family. And it would burn him from their souls as he had burnt her from his. He thought of Aidan, Asteria, Aurora and a couple of others - he wondered if they would notice the demi, if they would feel the pain, and he felt a great sadness. He would never again be connected to them as he once had been and that upset him greatly. The rest, could all rot as far as he was concerned, but for those few - he would mourn.

He pulled out his phone and sent off a text to those under him and those he cared about, to warn them of what was to come. However, 'she' would get no such warning, and he damn well hoped it would hurt!

"Hey, it's Robert.

There's a demi on it's way - if it's not there already. Do not fear it, it's not there to hurt you..... not too much. If you want to talk about what's happened - I'm here.

I'll always love you.

Robert.
xx"

And then he set his phone back into his pocket, heaved himself to his feet and found her with a smile before wrapping his arm about her and leading her out, the other having already vanished once more into the night.

There had been weeks and months of talks and planning until finally it all had come together. Finally she was able to give him the ultimate gift. It was costly but it was worth every dime that she spent. Hell...the new relics were cheaper than this but she didn't care, to her it was worth it...HE was worth it. Carefully she gathered everything she needed. Paying ridiculous prices on the auction house as well as reasonable ones. Making the needed call, she let the other know that she was ready and even had the requested payment.

Smiling to herself, Lizzie couldn't help but think about how each time that she spoke of rituals lately, Robert thought she was talking about being bound. She was finally accepting the fact that they would never be married especially in that nature but she couldn't help but always looking at him as her husband. She even told him that she would do so and there was nothing that would change that. They were partners and if that is how she could be with him...it was more than enough. This though...this was long planned and he deserved it. It made her proud that she was able to come up with everything needed, never asked for help so she could surprise him with it.

Once the arrangements had been finalized...she told him and he never believed her but today was the day of reckoning as she looked down at the recently received message. The time was now as she looked up at the man that she loved. She smiled as she quickly ran off and met her friend as she spoke in his mind, letting him know that it wasn't long now before he was free. Texting her back as she moved quickly to the agreed upon location, reminding her that she no longer was able to summon Robert. The excitement that she held for him was monumental and she couldn't wait to see his reaction when it was all complete.

Carefully she passed each item that was needed, realizing she had gotten extras but that was fine as she would have them for the just in case. Even passed over the payment and waited. She stood back out of the way as the Fae never liked her. Normal or Demi so for her to be near them made her antsy and uncomfortable. Now she was just itching for it to be over given that it was about to get real and the fae was about to get called.

It wasn't long before Robert suddenly appeared in the circle and the ritual was underway. Her eyes looked up at him, soft and caring as she worried about the Fae being with Robert. He was always able to speak to them, have them do his bidding so her worries weren't as strong as if she was in the circle but she could see the look in his eyes, the worry to get her to safety but she just shook her head and nodded toward the Fae. Lizzie knew what was about to happen but she didn't know how the Fae would carry out the command. Biting her lower lip as she watched with intrigue and worry.

It wasn't much longer before the Fae reacted to their dance and the other started cleaning up the table that she felt as if she couldn't breathe...if she was human anyway. She panicked as her chest felt tight with worry when the Fae vanished into Robert. She stepped forward and stopped at the edge of the circle waiting for him to say that he was okay and that nothing went wrong. She trusted her friend but this was a ritual that she knew nothing of. Her sire had it done but she wasn't there to witness it. This was different than she had seen before and he looked as if he was in pain.

He was on the ground and she went to rush toward him to help when she saw the Fae and he grinned at her. She instantly froze and waited for it to run off they always did. She watched and glared at it until they were free of it's presence. Looking down at him with anticipated eyes, she watched him pull out his phone and send off a text. She was curious about it but she didn't want to pry. Her part of the work was done as she gave him a soft smile. As he stood and embraced her, she instantly relaxed as she reached upon her toes and kissed his cheek before he lead them away.

Pi felt it happen, because it was the first time something like this had happened in direct relation to her and when she did it felt like a weight was stripped from her shoulders, shrugged off as if the last yoke had been yanked free. She thought disowning him was what had freed her of his influence but she realised now that she had been waiting all along, for this.

She stood behind the bar at Lancaster's, the rag in her hand, the movement stopped mid-swipe and she sighed, a long whisper of a sound that crawled from behind her lips and exited on a small barely legible sound of relief.

"Thank God. It's done."

Their history had been peppered with signposts of pending doom. Nothing for them had gone right, not from siring and not anything that came in the middle. They had both strived in their way to make something out of the sows ear that was their connection and it was more than either of them could sustain. They were too opposite or too much the same. Their time together had created a black hole and for a while she had tried to fill that hole with things she thought could heal the rift. Instead all their effort was sucked into the void and disappeared beneath the onslaught that was their inevitable end.

She sighed again, rolling her neck pushing away from the bar, entering the office and using the tome to leave the bar.

Using the portal she walked into Lan’s recording studio and slid down the wall. Staring at the glass wall in front of her she closed her eyes for a moment. It wasn’t the same place it had been all those months ago. Back then there was an empty apartment with next to no furniture and she had pulled in a mattress she had wedged against the wall, pillows and two blankets, one for her and one for the dog… Georgie. She’d taken to spending most nights there with the dingo that was more than a dog. It was here, in this place, against this wall that she had received the message from Robert. Pi, it had started, I do not agree with anything you and the office stand for, it had continued on. She had been laying there with Georgie, her small fingers thread through the ruff of fur around the dog’s ear, her arm draped across the animal’s back.

She remembered that moment well, especially here in this room that didn’t look anything like the room it had been at the time. She had spoken to the dog who had turned out to be Elliot and she spoke words that would be proved wrong, over and over again. God Georgie she had said I hope this time will be it, I really do.

It had been the beginning, that message, the beginning of the end. She had changed her world for Robert Pratt or he had shown her his version of the world in context of her own and she had let him be the impetus for her change. Him and Elliot. And she hadn’t known at the time but Elliot had been there too, two men who were the biggest catalysts in her life.

But those words were prophetic as if her own doubt at the outcome had been given life by her own lack of faith in their ability to enact real change. It hadn’t been enough and that moment had not been ‘their time’. They would cross so many more bridges and they would both burn them down behind them and none of it could be revisited and done over.

She shook her head and wondered if it would hurt this much every time this happened. Had it impacted The Reverend when she had created her own bloodline? Or Mircea that she had chosen to walk her own road?

Unlike the making of d'Artois, which was a moment of growth this felt like sawing away of a cancer, extracting from her future a decision she had come to regret. She knew at the time she’d walked away that there would be no salvaging what they were and she had no intention to try and this moment felt like the last moment, the last straw that set them both free.

She had stopped keeping up with him, not since she had found him with the ritual and helped in his recent death. She didn’t want to hear how he was doing or what. She barely registered him coming into the portal room and acting like he always acted. Innocence and the past something he rewrote to suit his purposes. She’d sat back and waited, planned and created d’Artois their space and purposely turned her mind away from the childe that was Robert Pratt.

Until now.

“Elliot….” She spoke softly down the phone, not remembering dialing or the ringing of it, only that he answered and that his voice soothed her. “I need you.”

Even after all this time the toxic man still had the power to move her to emotion. She would have been annoyed by it but it made sense in its way. The worst of the things that happen to you impact just as much as the good. She should know that. She knew it too well and she was good at taking the hits and learning to ford against the blow. Had she tired enough? She thought she had. Could she put him in to her past where he belonged? She hoped so but she didn’t think he’d let it be. What they had been was too much and their futures were destined to weave about one another without even trying.

When she hung up the phone she waited, for the one male who hadn’t let her down. Robert was destined to be a part of her life but this final act relegated him to another box, something neatly designed just for him. It would forever occupy a corner that would be his alone, their mutual past, their present and what would be, through effort on her part, be a minimal impact on her future.

Like a battered wife she realised the repetition of her behaviours were that of the abused. She had rationalised what he did as if it really was her fault he reacted like he did, and he had no control and his misplaced blame was accurate. She thought, for a long time, she really was to blame. It was her fault she’d turned him like she had, and not helped him. Her abandonment that made him what he was.

Finally with this he had set them both free and he might not see it that way but she had and finally, at the very end, they had done the right thing by one another. Pi would not utter a murmur against what was done and she would be glad for the second chance the creation of his own bloodline had given them. Here was their do-over, their second chance. The only difference being, is this second chance was one that didn’t feature the other. And that, was exactly how it should have been all along.

Robert Pratt had created his own bloodline. And she was so damn happy and relieved he had finally found a way to sever their ties once and for all.