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FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS
Last Updated:
2025-04-04 16:30:27
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Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance GOING HOME
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD My father had raised me to be a man, but I was still human.Day by day, I realised with pain in my heart that Eleanor had a grip on me that I could not break. It was like being entangled in a spider's web; the more I fought, the more I became entrapped.And then I thought.Father had been smitten by Vanilla Black. He never loved anyone else after her—not even Mother. It was a slow realisation that if my mother had lived, she would most likely have been miserable because of him. He even killed her brother because of her.Maybe if I let go and hurt myself in the process, I would become immune to love.Yes. I would let go, I decided.**I made the decision to let go of my hardheartedness on the same day my grandfather passed away. It was a gradual process over three days, as I observed him take slow breaths. I had seen enough men die, the majority of them at my hands. But seeing my grandfather lying there with bandages around his head was something else.I did not care
Last Updated : 2025-04-04Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE OLD MAN'S FORSIGHT
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD Those three days were the longest I had ever endured.For the first time, I understood why he cherished his dogs so much. A dog is often dismissed as nothing more than an animal, most likely because they only bark, wag, and play. Maybe it was because I was not a big fan of the species, but I quickly realised that their barks, whines, yelps, and howls all meant something profound to them, and they were better feelers than I was.The dog named Bubbly was the worst hit of them all, and I assumed he was aware. We all assumed he was aware that he was the source of the problem and noted his aloofness. Eleanor told me that he avoided other dogs and spent almost all of his time near Grandfather, except at night, when he would howl in a sad tone. I had heard that howl before, and it was one of the saddest sounds I had ever heard.It was difficult to blame, in any case. Grandfather didn't, so he patted it a few times.Furthermore, he was even more faithful than I, who did not
Last Updated : 2025-04-05Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance DON'T GO... PLEASE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD The days after his death passed in a blur. The only clear thing to me in all that time was Eleanor, who I started to see even more frequently as we were thrown together by our shared love for my grandfather. I was not always in the house, but whenever I visited, I continued to be drawn towards her by how affected she was by his death, so much so that she had practically become a wreck.Once, she had admitted to me that she could not stop thinking about how fast it had happened. He was going up the stairs to sleep in one moment, had crashed down in another, was in the hospital before she could blink, and now he was dead. She called it the fastest three days she had ever lived through, and I thought it was no lie. To me, it seemed as though all of it had happened in three hours, not three days.It was the day that made it a week after his death that caused me to go to the house. I had come to expect to see Eleanor's angelic face and to be as struck by it as the first
Last Updated : 2025-04-05Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE MEAL
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I returned to my home only once the week after that.That night, I painstakingly realized how drawn to Eleanor I had become, and how I felt by just being around her. It was a long night I could barely endure, and one that filled me with relief when the rays of sun touched my eyes. After that, I returned to my grandfather's house every night, where I found peace in the silence, the dogs, and above all, the woman.I was there again on this particular night when I found her cooking a large meal. The kitchen smelled of broth and garlic as Eleanor moved with a quiet grace that was only interrupted by the tone she hummed while her hands chopped some greens on a board and a pot blew off steam on the stove. She did not hear me come in, and would not have known of my presence had she not turned and caught me all of a sudden, screaming in fright for it. I stood still, my hands folded as she held a hand to her chest, taking in deep breaths.“You scared me.” She whispered, whil
Last Updated : 2025-04-06Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance DESIRE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I moved even closer to her, and her breath paused.There was a flicker of surprise in her eyes, before that disappeared and something warmer followed it, a thing that filled my chest with a sensation I thought strange. She didn’t move away now, but stood so close to me that the whole house suddenly felt smaller, and the space between us seemed to pull us even closer together, drawing us nearer to each other.I looked at her and caught a loose strand of hair across her eye. It was like a crack on some beautiful wall, or a random scribble across a painting by some unskilled artist who impeded the original work. She also turned to say something to me, and caught me staring at her.“Damian…” she began…Her voice faded off so that her lips hung open, and I found myself insanely wanting to kiss her. Something in my gut held me back, and I only lifted a curled finger and brushed that strand of hair from her face. Her skin was warm against the skin of my own fingers, and I l
Last Updated : 2025-04-07Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE POWER OF LOVE
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD Sex was nothing new to me.I had done it a thousand times and with hundreds of women. Some wanted favours. Others lied about loving me. Others simply wanted me for being Damian Blackwood. I served them all and put them behind me, refusing to pay them any more attention than I would have a mannequin standing in the street after. Only a few had even got a second chance with me. But Eleanor…She was different. Lying there before me, open and willing out of pure desire, I thought she was different from all those women. Something far purer and divine. Sometimes, you find yourself so taken by the beauty of something that you lose yourself staring at it, and that was Eleanor's nakedness to me. I leaned back and watched, taking all I saw in with a sort of euphoria. The view of her expectant body lying across the bed had an effect on me, a once in a lifetime experience. Her white skin and the pink that showed elsewhere was almost ethereal in the moonlight coming through the
Last Updated : 2025-04-09Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD I wasn't thinking about a lot then, but I thought she was perfect.Picture perfect, heavenly perfect. The most perfect that any form of perfect could aspire to be. She was warm and soft and oozing with life from beneath me, with her legs tightening around my waist and pulling me even closer to her.“Damian… oh Damian…” she moaned, and her voice was comparable to the sweetest of sounds. It was breathless and desperate, the harmony of the most sonorous choirs and the songs of the sweetest birds. It was the sole reason why I didn’t need to be told twice, and drew back until I was almost all the way out of her before pushing back into her with a force that slammed both our bodies and made her cry out in pleasure, her body bouncing about in the bed. The sound of her pleasure drove me to near madness, and I continued to a rhythm that was a dance for the both of us—slowing down until it was gentle for the first steps before becoming more deliberate. Her hips rose to meet m
Last Updated : 2025-04-09Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance MY PRINCE CHARMING
ELEANOR SINCLAIR I think love is a creeping feeling.It comes upon you like a thief in the night, and remains with you like your shadow—unnoticed, but realer than fiction. It holds sway over you like a powerful spell, and causes you to make decisions under its full influence. And all the time, it goes unnoticed.Another thing I think is that Grandfather knew that I was in love with Damian. When I did, I did not know. Maybe it had to have seized me on the day that I ruined his shirt in the most egregious of ways, so that I was sure of two things. That I had permanently ruined that shirt and that I was going to lose my job. I do not know about the first, but he graciously saved me from the second and even put the manager down. Maybe it was because I spent days and even months after that waiting for him to come again. ‘So I could serve him better than the first time,’ I told myself, but I knew deep inside that it was more than that. That it was just because I wanted to be seen by him.
Last Updated : 2025-04-10
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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
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance GREEN WITH ENVY
VINCENT MOREAU Who can blame me for being human and with feelings?Thinking about it made me realize when my desire for Damian Blackwood started—from the very moment I set eyes on him. I had misunderstood the feeling, assuming it to be something else, until I found myself wondering what it would feel like to kneel before him. To look in his eyes and take him inside of me. To cuddle and be cuddled by his strong arms.A quick check on the kind of man he was put the first obstacle in my name.“What about him?” I asked the spy of mine who was tasked with finding out all I needed to know.“Not some particularly impressive details, Sir. He makes for a brutal leader, killing without remorse, yet he seems to know how to balance it so well that his men have no choice but to love and respect him. Most people know about the kind of person he is, but his wife is surprisingly, glaringly ignorant. It is possible she chooses not to know.”I grunted at the sound of the wife. “And who is she?” I aske
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance PIERRE
VINCENT MOREAU For a long time, romantics have thought of Paris as the City of Love. As a young boy who lived on those streets, I never saw why, though. There was not so much I thought was lovely about it. There were too many angry voices, fights in the streets, blood baths, and evil men for me to think too much about love in those times.It would take a bedtime conversation with Cassandra for me to understand that it was not as much to do with love as it was to do with sex. There was something about sex in Parisian streets, something that made you think you could get it with nothing but the blink of an eye. Something that meant you could get any kind of sex you sought, for there was always someone to provide. I thought this was no lie, and that there was a bit of truth in it.Years before I lost my virginity to that prostitute, I did something with a boy.It was not actual sex. But there is an awareness of desire that comes in your early teens. The stiffness between the groins and
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE SEED
VINCENT MOREAU Damian Blackwood stared at me, his eyes narrowing.I knew he was coming to terms with as he processed my introduction. It was almost always daunting to my listeners when I told people I was the Spider, and I loved to watch them lose themselves to my spell and what I meant. The name hung in the air like smoke, curling around his thoughts, and he watched me with wariness lurking beneath his eyes. I only smiled.“You have to be French.” He observed.“I am.” I agreed. It was the hardest thing for me to deny, not with how often my accent gave me away, making it clear to everyone that English was not my first language. It did not matter to me either—as long as those who I had my eyes on were being affected by the poison of my words, I cared less for the accent.It was working on him, and I could see the battle between hesitation, caution, and need being waged in his mind, all three weighing the implications of partnering with a man like me who operated in shadows, who someh
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A TIMELY WORD
VINCENT MOREAU He made sure to down the contents of his cup before returning his gaze to me.“My men should know about it. They would know from the moment Wesley Black snaps a finger.”“Wesley Black isn't as stupid and naïve as you think,” I corrected, recalling that it had taken far more sophisticated arrangements to figure the boy out. “His plans are elaborate. He has men who have been there since the time of his father and grandfather guiding him. You seem to have doubts.”“Of course I do. Wesley is too sweet a soul to plot against me. He loves me.”“I believe your men can find me for as long as I am in Vieuti. You have spies.”“Why do you ask?” He questioned, a scowl on his face.“Because in ten minutes, your wife will be kidnapped from the house she is staying in, the one in which your grandfather lived before his death. You have no time, and even now you might be too late to rescue her. If you go fast enough, you will find that the Lone Wolf has been sent to get her. Right now,
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance A NEW CATCH
VINCENT MOREAU It would take years before I found another worthy catch. By then, my little circle and I had long gone apart, each deciding that it was time for them to do something worthwhile with what they had earned. I gave them all my blessings—did they not call me Father, anyway—and watched them build empires with what they owned.We paid good memory to Marco, a friend who was our favourite when he wasn't injecting himself with heroin. I never forgot that each time I looked at him, I saw nothing but a man who could have flown over the world but who found himself pulled down by his own weight. He could have escaped the night of Ricci's attack if he wasn't so laden with his addiction that he could do nothing to save himself. We knew it was why he truly died. It was why the words we put on his tombstone were clear:“A DEAR FRIEND WHO COULD NOT FIGHT HIS DEMONS.”We also gave half of his share of all our money to his mother and family. Of course it was more honourable to give her a
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance BLOOD IN THE CITY
VINCENT MOREAU With them, our first big play was a heist.It was not the kind New York was used to, and the target was a man who laundered money for half the city’s elite. His security was top-notch with every kind of security that could be thought of—from biometrics to secure firewalls and armed guards.We were hard pressed to find a weakness to prod, but I figured it out anyway.His arrogance and the number of skeletons he had hidden in his cupboard.It was a game of chance we were playing when Lila breached his system, planting a backdoor that let us steal away $10 million during a crash into his systems. The skeletons in his cupboard, which we determined as his weakness, was the reason why he could not report it without exposing his own dirty deals, and he could only watch as we funneled the funds through shell accounts. The account was soon empty, and he almost went bankrupt.The heist put us on the map, but it also drew angered eyes who could not identify who it was. Everyone s
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE TRINITY
VINCENT MOREAU The time then came when the Spider found the web he had cast over Paris a bit too small.Something about the Parisian Mafia felt minor and small scale. Nothing much except bank robberies here and there, and a few drugs being sold about. I thought that if I could play the same game somewhere else, I would be far bigger. So I gathered all that I could and moved to America. In Paris, my network had become intricate, but it was limited as well.It struck me that I wanted more power, and a delicate web spun across petty thieves, small gangs and their occasional rivals was nothing. As far as I was concerned, the city’s underworld had grown stale—or I had rather grown past it—and its opportunities had become too predictable. I wanted to be bigger and better. I wanted to be a legend.In America, with its bawling population and rising powers, I thought I was promised a larger river to cast my net over. The continent called to me like the gold rush—a haven of men with greed and
Scarred Roses, Burning Vengeance THE SPIDER
VINCENT MOREAU I would earn the name ‘The Spider’ three years after that, when I turned twenty.It was mostly because I learned the one thing my father did not. To kill. The test of the story was because of something I did, something that brought my name to the Parisian slums. One lesson I learned just as early was that people liked smart people. When you did things that would ordinarily not come to their minds, they liked you and lived in admiration of you. For the gangs, they thought I was smart because I knew everything about everybody. I knew who was plotting to kill his boss. I knew who had done something to attract the Police. I knew who was sleeping with who’s woman. I knew who was going to die next.It made me highly covered, indeed, and in danger of death all the time. They would want to sneak up on me and beat what they wanted to know out of me, which was why I had to learn two skills I found extremely important.How to escape, and how to kill. I made money from both.I r
