First Angel: The Source {Goddess Class Creation Series: Book Three}

FA: TS- Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

After hours of drinking coffee, Mark was on the way with everyone to Patience's agency to find out what they found out. Darius and Mark had grown a little closer. They talked the whole time while Mark was sobering up. They had bonded not really thinking they ever would.

Patience tried to apologize, but Mark wouldn't let her. He held her and kissed her cheek telling her that it wasn't her fault. She had to tell him what happened. He told her that he was determined now more than ever to get Dawn back.

At the agency, they were briefed on what they had been able to come up so far. "All the footage showed that he was very sneaky. He had a wheelchair waiting down the hall opposite the nurses station to move her. No one paid attention to him because he was a doctor. He had taken her to a rental car that he had driven up in. The rental agency said he had returned that car that afternoon. No one was with him."

"Do we have anything on his real identity?" Patience asked wanting to know anything and everything about this guy.

Nate pointed to the large screen at the end of the conference table. "All we could find that wasn't a fake persona was this from fifty years ago." Records of the university and the department of motor vehicles piled onto the screen, as well as news articles and photos. "We found out his real name is Nicholas White. He was, from all accounts, a drifter up until 1959. We don't know what happened, but its centered around this family..." A happy family came on the screen.

Mark's eyes immediately found Dawn's smiling face in the center. The whole family looked like they centered around her. "Dawn."

"We saw that too. Her name was Dawn Mannings. The first child of Charles and Natalie Mannings. We looked into the family and found that there were records and photos of the Mannings with Dawn in them up until her twenty-first birthday. There was apparently an arranged engagement that night between Dawn and Nicholas, but after they left the party from what we found, no one saw Dawn again.

"That's when Nicholas White took over as the family's heir siphoning off their fortune and went to college. He got several degrees including medicine and law among others.

"The thing is, the Mannings seem to fade away while Mr. White grew. The mother passed away three years after Dawn's birthday and then her subsequent disappearance. All records show that she died from chronic grief. The father hung himself after his son left the house and got married. There are records that show that he was growing suicidal after the time Dawn just vanished from the family."

"Do we have any idea at all where he could have taken her?" Patience asked.

"Nothing solid. There's this house. The Mannings estate which was passed to Mr. White at the time of Mr. Mannings' death. It's the only thing concrete that we could find."

"Lets start there. We'll go in with caution. She's not like a creation, she can be hurt." Patience said as Mark saw for the first time how commanding she could be. He never knew there was a leader in his ex. He felt even more respect for her.

Mark stood. "Dawn said that she couldn't die, that she tried." He look to Patience. "Is it possible that she is more like a creation than you think. Sure she might not have the impenetrable skin, but there's so much that's similar." Mark was happy she couldn't die, but sad that she could get hurt.

"But you saw it herself, she can be stabbed. We need to think of her as everyone else."

"Excuse me for butting into your argument, but why don't you think she is trying to get away?" Parro asked as he stared at the screen that showed the identification of Nicholas White and the family picture of Dawn side by side.

Mark straightened up from leaning over the table with his hands flat on it. He tried to think of a reason. He was awake right now so she had to be.

"She's paralyzed. He's paralyzed her till he has broken her completely. Till she'll do everything he says." Patience said with her head down.

Mark sank heavily into his seat. Parro turned and saw how Mark was. He turned to Patience. "Can we guess how long we have?" She shook her head.

Patience looked up at Parro. "He said something to her that I couldn't hear. Something that affected her." She could only imagine what he said. The sick twisted things he was coming up with. Anything to hurt Dawn emotional and bend her to his will. It could be anything at all.

Parro turned back to the screen. "So we only have so much time to get to her."

Mark growled and pounded the table making everyone in the room jump. "So what are we waiting for? Lets go!"

Patience turned to her husband. "Darius. Can you get Mark ready and tell him everything he needs to know?"

Darius leaned over to his wife. "Of course." He smiled sadly at her. "I love you."

She returned his smile. "I love you too. See you soon." He nodded before he got up and took Mark to the prep room.

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