Powerful (Immortal Love Series) 4

New series!

All individuals within the story are above or equal to the age of consent -- US law. (18)

All individuals within the story are fictional; any similarities between person(s) are purely coincidental

Feel free to post and comment -- I appreciate feedback and critiquing my work so I can get better, but there is a difference between critiquing and being rude. I may not be the best writer but I love it, if you want some story that is perfect stop searching for literature on the internet and go to a library.

Thank you for reading.

This story will be quite long so I suggest bookmarking or another way to store the page that you are on.

I encourage my readers to critique my work but please do not slag off what I write

Remember: not everyone has two sugars in their tea (hint: what you don't like someone else may)

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Chelsea Fine for the AoA series (Google) showing me about immortalities and curses

I would like to thank Charlotte Abel for the Channie series (Google) showing me about magic and love

I would like to thank Shiggymoto and his literotica Ashley series (check it out), for showing me true love is not always easy... it can be a battle but worth it if you fight hard.

But I would love to thank my sister -- the reason I live each day.

Blurb

David has searched for almost a thousand years for his one true love -- his sister -- Ashleigh.

With unlimited powers they search the earth to be together, but a centuries old curse placed by their mother, to stop their incestuous relationship, means that whenever they are intimate Ashleigh will die; but with immortal blood she will be reborn again.

Trouble is they must be intimate within the first year of her rebirth or else they both suffer immense pain until they do so.

Can they break the curse? Will true love prevail?

Now Ashleigh is back again, but with no memories of her old life or her brother she soon must learn to remember: about herself, her powers, and her love. She has one year.

Note: Chapters in this story include past events from various centuries. Please understand as I am not a historian, and while I try to research as much as possible, there may be a few historical mistakes. I hope that they do not deter from a good story and hope you enjoy this story.

Chapter 1: We're off to see the wizard

"We have to go see him." David said bluntly as he paced back and forth in the cramped living room.

"We have no idea where he is." Danielle sighed as she wiped away the sleep from her eyes stifling a yawn.

"We'll find him. I know roughly where he stays." David mused." It won't be too bad... tracking spell... ask locals... someone will know him..."

Danielle bolted upright from the chair and angrily stamped her foot on the ground, "Did you forget what he did to you!?"

"He just wanted the book. It wasn't personal he'll help." David muttered annoyingly calmly as he paced repeatedly.

"Not personal!? He tortured you David, for what the book!? And where is that? Hmm? We have neither what makes you think he's going to do anything!?"

David stopped walking and whipped his head to Danielle anger on his face like a thunderous storm; "She's dead!" He lashed his arm out and pointed upstairs to where he had laid her body on her bed, "Ashleigh is dead! And the one man who has the slightest chance of saving her is out there somewhere and you want me to leave it because of what he did to me!?" He sighed and calmed down taking in a sharp breath before a long exhale. "I can't go another hundred years not knowing whether she's coming back Danielle. I just can't."

"I know. You know I'll follow you anywhere but we need a plan we can't just go running around." She said softly and sympathetically, all the anger and frustration wiped out from his earlier confession.

She was right of course; she knew it as did he but to spend another waking second while Ashleigh was not of the same world threw all rationalization out of his head. He wanted to scream and destroy something but as usual the presence of Danielle, although he had been less than pleased earlier, calmed him greatly.

So that was their plan: to find Clyde – or at least that was the name he used the last time they met – and find some way of bringing back Ashleigh from the dead. But that still begged the question: why was she dead? David had pondered every reasoning, after all it hadn't been a full year and they hadn't been fully intimate, the only rational explanation was that the curse was evolving, changing somehow. Again he found himself asking the million dollar question: why?

"So where to?" Danielle asked.

"Tennessee. Last I heard he was living in some trailer park."

"And do you know which park?"

David shook his head. "David there's got to be like a hundred trailer parks how are we going to find him?"

"Well how hard can it be to find a one armed man living in a trailer in Tennessee?"

Danielle scoffed.

Chapter two: The doctor is ready now.

America, 1810.

Where is now modern day Houston, Texas.

Dr Hoffstaff hated to be kept waiting and right now that was exactly what he was doing. Waiting. Rarely did he take appointments, preferring to see as many patients as possible before the day was out, but for one particular prestigious individual within the local community he had made an exception several days earlier. An exception he was now beginning to question.

His family having moved from England several years earlier had been easily welcomed by a farming colony in what would become the outskirts of modern Houston, Texas. While he was a young boy he had watched as his father had laboured throughout the day moving from one intensive task to another that eventually lead to a shattered shin bone due to a rather catastrophic ploughing accident and consequent illness due to a raging infection.

For eight weeks Hoffstaff, no more than the age of seven or eight, observed as the wound slowly became gangrenous spilling down the rapidly deteriorating good tissue of the leg and forming a mass of internal infections ultimately leading to death. Before the painful end however, the physician came around each day bringing with him an assortment of medical supplies, herbs and natural remidies, along with a stagnant water filled jar of leeches. Alas even the blood-sucking parasitic worms were unable to prevent the inevitable. Charles Hoffstaff Sr was buried in a shallow grave with a wooden cross tombstone no more than ten feet away from the fields that he had gave his life to.

Charles Hoffstaff Jr had promised himself to never meet his father's untimely demise and better his life than a farm hand. He engrossed himself in medicine, learning what he could from the animals on the farm and anatomy from those that were too weak to work the fields. At 23 he became the farm physician and soon word spread about his medical healings. At 32 he moved from his quaint farm community home. And finally at 35 he stumbled upon a more rural community and settled before renting a small office space and establishing a 'walk-in' centre for illness.

He scanned the dirty street left to right once again before giving up waiting and going back inside the building where his office resided upstairs.

"Your patron not come Dr Hoffstaff?" His landlord Jimmy Markov asked from behind the wooden counter of his downstairs store. Having rented the upstairs rooms to Dr Hoffstaff he had thought it to be a prudent investment to use the downstairs reception area as a store selling all manner of inventory, most of which had medicinal value, and the occasional generalities.

"It would appear not Mr Markov." Dr Hoffstaff replied.

"And there is no chance of waiting longer for him?"

He sighed, why was it no one else understood his principles? If one has an appointment then one should agree and honour the terms of agreement. "Mr Markov in advance of said arrangement I have ensured that all other arrangements have been rescheduled at the earliest convenience. As such I would expect any man, especially one of such high regards, to do the same."

"Fair enough but unforeseen events may have interjected."

"It is precisely ten minutes from here to Mr Collins's estate at a leisurely pace. I have waited exactly eighteen minutes beyond the agreed time. If such an event has occurred it has either taken precedence of the appointment and thus he is not attending or it has rendered him incapable of attending. In either scenario he can catch me tomorrow during a free session."

"I still think you should charge for those sessions." Mr Markov said almost obnoxiously. "A man of your skill could become quite wealthy."

"Wealth does not interest me Mr Markov. Saving a life is reward enough."

Mr Makarov chuckled while grabbing an old cloth from underneath the counter and proceeded to wipe over the top. "A rare commodity these days. You're an honourable man Dr Hoffstaff."

The next day,

Time: 13:20

"Ah Mr Collins, please come in." Dr Hoffstaff motioned to a chair in front of his desk before laying down his quill and reclining back in his chair. The look he affixed the man was completely neutral, dead, in all senses of the word. Mr Collins removed his gentleman hat before stepping over the threshold and taking a seat in the chair, neither spoke for a while.

Finally Mr Collins broke the silence "Dr Hoffstaff, my apologies regarding yesterday, I --"

"Mr Collins if you wish to waste my time I suggest you do so outside my office hours, at least that way I can still save time to help others."

"Again my apologies."

Dr Hoffstaff sat back aware that he had unconsciously been leaning forward over his desk, he interlaced his fingers and rested his balled hands on his chest, "Now, how can I help you today?"

"There is someone who wishes to meet you."

"Then I suggest they attend any one of my many free sessions."

Collins waved him off before continuing, "Oh, he does plan on seeing you. But given what I have seen I suggest you do so in sincere privacy."

"Does this mysterious stranger have a name?"

"David. That's all he gave me."

Chapter 3: The man in Tennessee.

Thankfully the flight from England to Knoxville, TN, wasn't as long as expected with no delays and quite a pleasant journey with the air hostesses' constant flirtations – much to the wary eye of Danielle. Yet as they stepped down from the plane finally touching solid ground neither spoke about the changed mood in the air, the international flight proving much needed refection time.

Now that he was finally on the other continent the realisation that he had almost no plan to find the man he was looking for weighed more heavily on his shoulders. Of course the most obvious course of action would be to look for doctors working under his previous aliases but knowing that his aliases change regularly throughout the decades as to prevent suspicion it was unlikely that he would be using an old alias. Still it was better than nothing, and at the moment nothing was all they had.

To spare the boring details, three phone books later and an internet search and David had four possible suspects, two of which had revolutionized practise within their respective fields, and a Dr Mendella who lived a high profile life unfitting a person such as Dr Hoffstaff who preferred secrecy and humility but still worthy of note due to his practise and facial similarities.

David leased a car from one of the many used dealerships surrounding the airport signing many warranty papers ensuring responsibility and ownership before he was actually handed the keys. Although he would have much preferred to bring his own V8 mustang he didn't want to waste time with the shipping costs and extra charges along with the further waiting for it to arrive, he didn't wish to use magic to transport it for using a large spell would use energy and could easily be traced and thus the secrecy would be ruined. Instead he rented a car for approximately $2,000 and drove it out the dealership within minutes.

Instead of waiting with David during the haggling for prices at the dealership Danielle had wandered around the block before settling down at a small coffee shop and ordered two cups of coffee, one with two sugars and cream and the other one sugar and black, before waiting outside the shop sitting at a small circular garden table with matching forest green plastic chairs that looked as if they had endured many days in miserable weather. She sipped at her coffee texting with her freehand without even the need to look at her screen while her face scanned the road and other customers of the establishment. She pressed the send key with her thumb after giving her message a quick look and pocketed her phone. It was only three minutes later that a blue Renault Clio rolled around the corner and stopped, she watched the car with unease shifting her weight ready to sprint away at the slightest cause. The window rolled down with a loud-enough-to-hear electric hum before she sighed in relief at David sitting at the wheel. She got in the passenger seat, handed David his coffee and strapped herself in with the seatbelt.

The first name on the possible suspects list lived only a short distance from the airport and once they rolled onto the U.S Route 129 northbound they made quick progress to the Southlake RV Park – a fitting location given Dr Hoffstaff penchant for helping those that lived below normal society. The park was nothing more than a dirt road surrounded by tall pine trees and a few random assortments of permanent brick houses and scattered rusted, beaten down mobile homes that looked highly unsuitable for housing. David parked the rental car just beyond reach of the park and cast a weak ignorance spell that would deter any person interested in the vehicle. Upon closer examination of the squalid RV park it became quickly apparent that: A) none of the rusted buckets of sheet metal these people called home had any numeric order, and B) the so called occupants of these homes were more than likely less than friendly towards those outside of its community, and probably inside too.

Nevertheless David knocked on the door of the first home closest to the road. After several seconds the door opened and there stood a rather large overweight man in a white tank top that looked as if it had been bought several years before and never cleaned – evidence by the food and dirt stains. The man himself looked unkempt, dirty black greasy hair, unshaven for days and clearly intoxicated by the copious quantity of liquor he had been consuming inside. Danielle couldn't help the guttural sound of repulsion that escaped her and quickly choked back her whimper and stood behind David as the man snarled and grunted in his own reply back.

"Excuse me sir, I was hoping you could help me. I'm looking for a doctor although I'm unsure of his name." David said.

"Why what's wrong wicha?" the man asked grumbling and slurring his words as he struggled to maintain his balance standing up before resting against the doorframe, the rancid odour of stale cheap alcohol permeating with every word.

"It's complicated." David replied. "Do you know of a doctor around this area?"

"Tell you what you give me that pretty little thing and I'll give you some stuff that'll make whatever you got go." The man chuckled lasciviously glaring at Danielle while he licked his lips.

David balled his fists but refrained from knocking the man out knowing it would only take a single solid strike given the inebriated state. He cast a quick sobering spell to ensure the man had lost most of his buzz and moved on to the next trailer simply ignoring the grotesque being standing in the doorway.

Needless to explain each trailer conversation their time at Southlake RV Park can be summarised by talking to a single mother of five children by four different fathers who were never around, an elderly gentleman with four visible missing teeth in desperate need of a bathe and hot meal, an obese African-American woman in a wheelchair with a very snappy attitude and two other residents who were not amiss the other rejects of civilised society.

The only substantial clue they gathered was that there was indeed a man known to the profession of medicine although he did not have an office but continued his practise at his home. Upon the last person it was found that the alleged doctor did not technically reside at the RV Park but lived in what could only be thought of in David's mind as a hovel, similar to his own house in England many years ago before he modernised it. The unkindly man even provided a path route through the treeline, albeit a vague route and only brought forth from a hint of persuasive magic from David.

The residence was exactly as David and Danielle had expected, a completely wooden structure, most likely built from the trees surrounding, but without any weathering the deep setting of wood rot and moss was evident all over the dishevelled structure. But on the plus side it looked sturdy enough to stand an extra week. The man who finally opened the door gave David a small involuntary shudder down the bottom of his spine – it was indeed the good doctor, "good" being a subjective descriptor, one David would neither agree nor disagree with.

"I was waiting for you to come here." The man said stepping to the side as a clear suggestion for them both to enter his home.

Stepping past the man Danielle finally got a good look at the man she hated but had never met. Just from looking at him it was clear to see how David would have seen him all those years ago, the effect of his immortality spell not being "true" and hence the slight notice of ageing in the right areas of his features.

The man motioned to what would be his couch, like most areas of the home this too showed signs of age, the once brown tanned leather faded with age showing a spider-web of cracking all over. David accepted the unspoken offer and sat down more so on the edge of the couch that resting back and hunched forwards elbows on knees, Danielle remained standing.

"So how did you know we were coming?" Asked David.

"Simple." The doctor replied adding a deliberate pause for effect. "Your mother told me.".

Chapter four: Ashleigh resurrection

Danielle had always loved hunting, true to his word David had indeed stopped by most weeks to deliver a basket of meat, bread and the occasional cheese with berries and fruits. He didn't do it because he was in love with her or trying to court her but because there had become an almost platonic sibling-ship between them that was amiss even with life with Ashleigh.

She skipped easily from one branch to another branch using her small size and frame to boost her natural agility, like a true huntress she knew exactly which hunt required which approach, for the heavier stay-and-fight type game the ground offered better attack with the weapon of choice being her spear or lanced stick; for those game who would rather flee at the first sight and were quick on their feet she preferred the trees to mask her sight and ranged attacks using her trusted cedar wood bow with horse mane string. While she did not directly look down she knew the hulking outline of David stalking around on the ground, if she wasn't already aware of him being there with her she would have thought it nothing more than a scavenger animal, too quick to hit and not bothersome enough to attack.

Spotting what might have been game ahead, possibly deer, she quickly nocked the arrow, drew and released in one successive fluid movement. The dull thudding sound of a dense mass hitting the ground confirmed her hit. With speed and agility she never left the trees as she ran to claim her score...