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2025-03-24 03:38:40
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance DARING
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD In the three years that passed, I showed more and more of my Blackwood character.The basement became a second home to me, and I navigated the place so often that I could make my way through with my eyes shut. The other room it ended in was only one of the many Blackwood storerooms to hide our weapons—I was told that it was the oldest of them, connected to the Blackwood family home when it was built a hundred years before, yet it was my favourite. It filled me with a kind of spirit that made me feel as though I was fulfilling history and about to make some of mine. It always had a damp smell, that and something else, which I suspected was the drugs. Still, my father had given me a strict warning never to use drugs. “Anything that causes you to become a slave to it is dangerous,” he would say. “Be it drugs, love, or a woman. A Blackwood is never a slave, but is born to rule.”From the moment of my first kill, I knew I wanted to own it all. My father was not dead yet,
Last Updated : 2025-03-25Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance DEAL
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD Again, the man who whispered to him as I entered the room began another series of silent discussions with him, and I waited for them to finish. A minute later, they were done.“And what is this business proposal of yours, young Blackwood?”I rose and cleared my throat. I wanted to convince him.“I love my father, Victor Blackwood,” I began, and saw the old man before me raise his eyebrows. Still, I was not done. “He is dear to me and has taught me everything I now know. He has raised me to be a man, and I want to do him a favour back. He is growing old and fails to see how many opportunities that our locale, Vieuti, carries. I can see them, however, and I want to use all of them.”“What do you mean?”“Vieuti is a place that has been home to the Blackwoods for years. We rose from among them to serve them, and have carried out their murders and brought them the drugs they want for their euphoria. The only thing is, my family has sold the same kind of drugs for the pas
Last Updated : 2025-03-25Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A Father's Tale
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD That night, on my return, I had a very long talk with my father. We sat on either side of a table in his room, father to son, and there remained quiet for so long that I wondered if we were going to say anything at all. “You didn't tell me a deal with the Blacks was what was on your mind. I hate that family.” He began looking me over.“I did what was best for us to do. You'll see it in a few months, and you will know that I made the right choice.”“I trust you, boy. I know I raised you well, and I feel pride over what you did. But I still hate the Blacks,” he said, bringing out a video recording of me speaking to Michael Black and playing it. There was a look of pride upon his face, but I could only think of how someone had recorded me without knowing. I felt an inner surge of rage over this, that one of the men I went with would do this without telling me. How dare he—whoever he was- undermine my power. To consider me a boy who needed to be watched by his father…
Last Updated : 2025-03-26Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE BLACKS
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I watched his face assume a sour expression that had disgust written all over it. “While I waited, Oliver came a number of weeks later to me,” he continued, his voice hardening. “He told me Vanilla had already been promised to someone else by their father to secure an alliance. When I asked if she had agreed to it, he swore that she did. I did not want to believe him, as I was sure that his sister was in love with me, but I trusted him as my friend and let go by stopping my visits and even asking about her. I buried it all and told myself I’d been a fool to fall for her, to think that she could love me as a Blackwood.”I watched him closely and found myself annoyed by the emotion that showed on his face. Only weak men let emotions get to them as far as I was concerned, as far as he taught me, and I could swear he was becoming weak.“A year later, I found out the truth,” he continued, now closing the fist that had held the cigarette. “I started raising the Blackwood
Last Updated : 2025-03-26Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance CLOSE SHAVE
DAMIAN BLACKWOODMy business with the Blacks took off quite well.Vieuti responded just as I said they would. Our supplies were hurried so quickly, and I made sure to sell them at a price that would put the others out of business. By the end of the first month, I returned to Michael Black with a mouth full of success.I sat before him in that chair with a smile on my face, confident of how successful I had been, and sent one of my men with the records of my sales for him to see. He went through each page carefully until the very last one, and shut the book in the end so hard that it made a sound that echoed through the whole room. No one said a word, waiting to hear what he had to say, and then he started to clap. One clap… two claps… three claps… until the whole room was going off in a round of applause. It lasted, and I sat still, taking everything with a smile on my face.“A eighteen-year-old-boy just pulled off sales that I haven't seen from many older men.” He announced. “Look a
Last Updated : 2025-03-27Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance BLOOD
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD A week would pass since that meeting with Michael Black for something to happen.Within that time, I felt that I had gone several steps up the ladder of power, and the world was going to be mine. The alliance I had forged between myself and the Blacks was the talk of every corner, and my name, Damian Blackwood, was whispered with a mix of awe and resentment as was reported. They said that at eighteen, I had climbed higher than most men twice my age. That was when I saw why I needed Michael Black's blessings and advice. The alliance had allowed for me to tighten my hold on the fiends in Vieuti, and with Michael Black giving me so much priority that he made sure my supplies were on time, I was tightening my grip on the neck of the competition. For us Blackwoods, the men worked tirelessly under my instructions, loyal to me not just because of the Blackwood name but because I’d proven myself. Before I knew it, I was in control of half of all Blackwood properties. Just
Last Updated : 2025-03-27Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance TWENTY FIVE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD By the time I was twenty-five, I was at the top of the ladder.I had survived a number of assassinations without cuts and made so much money that my next goal was transitioning all the Blackwood assets into legal businesses. My father had retired, leaving everything in my hands—he had done it since I turned twenty—and Michael Black had been dead for four years. I mourned his death after learning so much from him, as we had grown so close that whispers started to go around about him being my true father. Those whispers became even louder when I was one of the first and few at his deathbed, and he went into the afterlife after leaving me a 20% share in his will, an equal amount to the shares he left his own biological children. When he was asked about it, he said:“This one is my son. Did you not know he would have been my grandson if I let his father marry my Vanilla?”All he asked of me was that I watch over his other four, to keep them from harm.“I trust you, Dami
Last Updated : 2025-03-28Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance FAKE GOLD
ELEANOR SINCLAIR I still think of how I met Damian Blackwood through his grandfather.Our first contact was when I served his coffee in the café I was working at the time. He appeared to be a jolly old man—the smile and extra tip he gave me warmed me up so that I ignored the other man who sat next to him. He called me for a second order, and as I turned the hot liquid into his cup for the second time, I tried to listen to them. My eye caught the other man's grin and I thought that there was something off about him. After that, my eyes moved to his hands and I saw what they held onto.It was a gold chain with a small pendant fashioned to look like a dog. I found it hard to understand why he would want a chain made of gold, but saw that it really did have an effect on the old man, who the other man now handed it to. His hands shook so much I could not tell whether it was for joy or for his age, and his expression softened with a mix of nostalgia and longing, highlighting how much he
Last Updated : 2025-03-28
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance TERROR
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD The gun in my hand was heavy.I had used many kinds of guns over the years, but this was one that particularly weighed me down, holding me to the chaos that had erupted in our home while having nothing to do with its weight. For all I knew, I had had many enemies like my father before me, but none had dared to come close to our home, both during his time and during mine. None at all.As much as I tried to keep myself in control, my heart kept on racing, the adrenaline rush that had come from tearing through the bedroom like a psychopath while searching for whatever clues that could have been left still in my veins. From where Eleanor stood by her dresser, her fingers dancing around the edge of the drawer she'd just opened, I could see that her face was pale but had somehow managed to be serene. Too serene, maybe. I could see the questions churning in her eyes, which I guessed were the same ones bubbling in my own. Someone had lured her out of the house, while making
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PANIC
ELEANOR SINCLAIR The outside air was bracing as I rushed through it, late autumn biting sharply at my exposed arms in the dress I had specially worn to please my now enraged husband, who was waiting. I tied up my coat and started off, my mind whirling with questions. Once again, I checked the number, and it was his. It had to have been sent to me in error, and it was going to be cleared up the moment she got home. The only thing that frightened me about it was that Damian hardly ever made such mistakes, and he would have checked it if it were her fault. As time went on and he did not call her again, she became more and more convinced that he truly did not send it. It was the one thing that bit at her.If Damian didn't send the message, who did, and why? On his phone, as well...The road was deserted as I stopped the only taxi in sight, the golden light of the afternoon fading into nothingness while being replaced by the streetlights that glowed as I passed through. My phone felt he
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance STRANGER THINGS
ELEANOR SINCLAIR The restaurant she sat waiting in was a soft buzz of clinking glasses and hushed tones.It was the kind of place Damian always chose as long as he wanted the meeting-someplace upscale but unostentatious, with soft lighting that cast a touch of intrigue and mystery over all who sat under it. I sat alone at our usual window seat, my hands tracing the edge of the silky white tablecloth in need of something to do while I waited, and my gaze cutting to the door every couple of seconds, just to make sure I did not miss him.Times were the best when he wasn't hitting me.It was what our marriage was sometimes. It could go from being sweet and enchanting to being a warzone, and I did all I could to make sure that I didn't displease him. Was that not the only reason we had fights, because it was all my fault?The waiter had already come by me twice, his smile polite but tightening each time my hand rejected his offer to place an order for me. "Just a few minutes," I had said
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance HIS RETURN
VINCENT MOREAU The plan was unfolding on schedule, and with all efficiency.I watched from my own safe vantage point near their home and with a pair of binoculars-from a dark alleyway behind a gnarled oak tree opposite the house. I caught her shadowy form leaving the house, and thought that it was going well enough. Perfect.Long, golden strips of light lay across the pavement from the late-afternoon sun, and there was a fine scent of long dead fallen leaves in the air. I spotted her slow, methodical walk, her coat flying slightly in the breeze, confirming that she had gone. The message I had sent-one painstakingly crafted to mimic Damian's brusque voice-had worked. To think she hadn't even hesitated, hadn't questioned, and had done it all for him without thought.That was Eleanor when it came to anything concerning him. Loyal, trusting, predictable.If only she knew how much this was going to cost her...I let out a heavy, tired sigh, quite rattled that I was sitting in a tree like
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PLOTTING
VINCENT MOREAU I do not know why it took me five years to finally do something, though. But I found myself staying in Vieuti longer than I had in any city since my dear Paris, and I like to think that it was because the place quickly became a sort of comfort zone for me. I invested my five million dollars with Damian and thirsted after his wife while harbouring secret plans to have him for myself. Oh... I still do not know why I was in for this couple. But it took me five years to decide that I truly wanted them apart. And when I moved, I struck right where I wanted. **The thing about Eleanor was that she rarely ever left home, which was a dent in my plans given what I planned to do with her. It was as though she enjoyed being indoors, and it was my first difficulty. To do that, I needed to do something believable. To execute my plan, I needed her out of the house more than anything else. It was a question that was almost difficult to answer...How was I to coax a woman who se
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE VISIT
VINCENT MOREAU I did not refuse when Damian invited me to come see him sometime after that.I thought it was a sign of good things, a sign that he was starting to trust me, and I chose to make the best I could out of it. So I took a trip from the hotel I was still living in-I had come to like the room I was in so much that I put away all thoughts of renting something more permanent and simply continued staying there. I had enough money to buy the hotel.Damian's mansion had been a profound revelation when I first stepped in. The sprawling on a raised part of the city that made it seem as though he was overlooking Vieuti's glittering skyline, with the building standing as a monument to his dominion of the city beneath him. The white, marble floors gleamed and shimmered under crystal chandeliers that were just as white, and every piece of furniture within the perimeter screamed of wealth-from hand-carved mahogany statues that sat here and there, gold-trimmed mirrors that were undoubted
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THREE PHASE CYCLE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD My footsteps echoed loudly on the marble floor of my home as I walked into it.Everyday, the weight of Vincent Moreau's words clung to me, as heavy as the file tucked under my arm which was slowly becoming a reminder of our discussion earlier that day, each word of his burrowing into my mind and turning it into a puzzle I didn't understand.'A chain. A beautiful one, maybe, but it holds you back.'Exhausted, I tossed the file onto his desk to relieve myself of it, but then it opened and the names of the nine traitors glared up at me, men who had turned and helped Wesley Black against me. It wasn't their betrayal that gnawed at me as much as the idea that I, Damian Blackwood, the untouchable king of Vieuti, was considered by these men to be vulnerable, predictable, and human. And they did not hesitate to use it against me. Not in the least.The door to the bedroom creaked open, and there she was. Eleanor, my wife.Her eyes were wary as they stared at me, and she froz
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PRISON IN THE EARS
VINCENT MOREAU Our eyes met as he set his glass down on the table with a clink, his fingers dancing on the rim. "You think I cannot do enough to protect what is mine?""I think you're trying to protect too much," I shot back, launching into a dramatic show that required descriptions of my words with my hands. "A man like you-ruthless, calculating, untouchable-doesn't need attachments that make him predictable and even worse, vulnerable. Your wife is not just a person now. She's a target, and every time you go home to her, or let her soften your edges, you're giving your enemies a path to your open self, something they will use against you. And believe me, they're studying it closely."Damian's lips twitched. It was not quite a smile, but something that showed how amused he was. "You've got a sharp tongue for a man of your age and status, Vincent. Most men would have lost it by now for saying half of what you just did to me. No one ever says that."I allowed myself a small smirk, mas
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PARANOIA
VINCENT MOREAU It was not surprising, then, when Damian Blackwood started to pay me attention.I knew he admired me—not in the way I would like, but he was impressed by how I managed to find out about Wesley Black and curb her kidnap just as it happened. So when he reached out to me for drinks a week later. I had a number of spies keep tabs on the Blacks, and waited for any tug of some unfortunate prey over the new web I had cast.Thankfully, there was nothing, not yet. Wesley Black had run off like a frightened dog with its tail between its hindlegs, and I waited for Damian so I could stun him with the names of the men who were involved in the plot, all of the nine former men of the Black family.Again, we sat across each other in the restaurant where we first met, sipping glasses of brandy. I handed him a file of the names he wanted which he flipped through, silently nodding his head. Then he kept it aside and continued to drink."They should never have dared to attack me,” he sudd
