Cursed Desires

1

"Hey boss, here's the files you asked for." Julian threw a stack of folders down on Rosalind's desk. She opened her mouth to start scolding him for interrupting what she was working on, before she looked up and saw his face.

"Merlin Julian, lose a fight to a troll? What the fuck happened to your face?"

Julian rolled his eyes. Well attempted to. One eye was almost fully swollen shut, the other was completely blood shot. His nose was bandaged and his lip was split open. Rosalind stood up, bringing her hand to his face.

"Ha. I'll have you know this was the handy work of some Ashwinders that were waiting for me outside London." Rosalind's eyebrows furrowed. With her magic, she could feel the broken orbital bone on Julian's face.

"Don't worry, you should see the other guys," Julian joked, attempting to ease the mood.

"They better have left in body bags," Rosalind grunted out, running her hand along Julian's face. She watched his face relax as she healed the bones and cartilage.

"Do you think I would've returned to you if they had left alive? I'm sure whatever you would have in store for me would've been worse then the alternative."

Rosalind smirked. Julian was smart, and he continued to prove to her why she had chosen him as her second in command. And he was right. She's done much worse to others for much smaller things. She stepped back from him as she finished healing his face.

"What happened? Why didn't Odette heal you?"

Julian sighed as he dropped onto the chair opposite of Rosalind's desk.

"She's off somewhere in the south. You know her, she does what she wants. Our healers are good, but not that good." He ran his hand through his hair. "I was back home visiting... I hadn't visited their graves in a long while. I stopped by London on the way back here to pick up supplies. That's when I ran into three of 'em. Real nasty lot honestly."

"And they just attacked?" Rosalind shifted uneasily in her seat. Julian nodded.

"I recognized them because you know they were wearing that stupid face thing they wear, with the skulls?" Julian waved his hand in front of his face. "I don't know, my dazzling good looks must've caught their attention." He gave Rosalind a lopsided grin, which she returned with a sneer.

"Alright, just be more careful next time okay? Don't feel like having to replace you. Now get out." She shooed him with her hand. He jumped up and gave her a mock salute, before leaving her office.

She groaned and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes. The Ashwinders had become more and more aggressive recently. Typically they stuck to their turf while Rosalind's people stuck to theirs. Areas like London were always fought over, but never to this extreme. They had been in a rocky sort of truce for a few years at this point, but something changed recently.

She looked down at the files Julian had brought her. She started looking through them, looking for one particular folder on one particular man.

Victor Rookwood.

Rookwood had been a thorn in Rosalind's side ever since she had found out she was a witch and had joined the wizarding world. He's sent dragons, trolls, merlin knows what else he was behind in trying to get her killed. She thought back through their complicated history.

They had fought plenty of times before, and despite once having the upper hand on him at the end of her fifth year, she didn't do it. She had left the man bleeding out on the ground. It's not that she couldn't do it. But she felt he deserved a death worse than a swift Avada. He had cursed one of her best friends and refused to own up to it.