Thicker than Water

Chapter Eighteen - Haden's Point of View

Here it is again, Haden's point of view!  Pretty please, comment and share!

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Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

I groaned and tossed the book onto the floor and scanned the shelf again.  Many of the books were in a language I couldn't even begin to comprehend, but the ones I could weren't what I needed at all.  The never ending library of books and knowledge was damn near useless to me.  I was growing very irritated by the minute while looking for anything to help Rogue.

After I had gotten her through her withdrawal, she fell right asleep in the tub.  Marissa had said she would pass right out once it was over, but it was odd seeing Rogue so worn out.  She had said that when the withdrawals came each time would be worse.  It was already hard enough watching her cry in pain.  But once I had put her in bed and left Kant to watch over her, I went straight to the library to do research.  I needed to find some way tho help her.  I had managed to find one book on telepathic bonds, but pages were missing.  Other than that, I had find not a god damn thing that was really useful.

"You look pretty frantic," Kendell said from the isle entry.  When I casted a glare at him he raised his hands in surrender.  I knew he had been watching for awhile, but I hag paid no mind.  He said, "Just saying.  But you really love Rose don't you?"

"Of course," I said openly and went back to scanning the books.  From beside me, he sighed.  When I looked back at him he was looking at me with a sorrowful look.  "What is it now," I asked him sourly.

"You are doing all this work to help her," Kendell says as Marissa comes to stand beside him.  "Does love make a person do such a thing?"  It was an obvious answer, so I didn't bother speaking.  "Well, we came to help," he added then went around the shelf to the other side.  Marissa went to the opposite direction.  I went back to scanning the titles again like before.

"Here's a book on the netherworld," Kendell said from the other side of the shelf.  "It's in elvish, but I'll translate if you like."

"Not exactly what I'm looking for.  But thank you," I tell him and scan through the titles again.  Nothing really jumped out at me.  Yet again.  "Anything on vampires would be nice though," I tell him and start scanning another shelf.

"I found something," I heard Marissa say.  When I leaned out of the isle I was in, Marissa was already at a desk looking down at a book.  "It's about the dragons.  Everything up until the justice dragon died is in here.  That should be helpful, right?"

When Kendell and I had managed to get through the ocean of books on the floor that I had tossed, we looked down at the book in front of Marissa.  It was similar to the ancient looking blue book that Kendell had had earlier, but this one a deep maroon color with gold engravings of leaves and flowers.  Kendell stood next to Marissa and looked down at the book.

"Shit, you found the exact book we needed," Kendell said and looked up at me.  "I knew this damn thing was here somewhere."  He flipped towards the back of the book and spun it around to me.  "Take a look at that."

When I looked down at the page, my heart almost stopped.  There, right on the page, was a sketch of a young girl.  Her red hair and violet eyes were vibrant against the aged page.  She wore a black cloak, concealing the full length of her hair.  Beside her, was an orange dragon that looked down at her kindly.  The girl's hand was practically morphed with the dragon's claw.  I didn't have to read it to know it was taking about Rogue and the binding spell with the dragon.  When I flipped back a page, the symbol jumped out at me first.  Then, I nearly broke right on the spot.  Photographs of Rogue as a young child strapped down to a marble table with chains and shackles were glued to the page.  Men stood around her with black hoods pulled on to hide their features.  They all looked down at her writhing in pain and agony as they branded her with the symbol.  She was screaming and crying in each photo.  Even though it was just a photo, I almost felt like I had been right there.  She had been only four years old and her own father had done that to her.  He had made her suffer both the pain and the repercussions of the curse.  When a similar torture session had happened to me, I was older and much more able to bear it.