Curse the Mainframe! 367 Familiar

Dominique stared on curiously as Elias carried out his plan.

He was moving about the house with surprising deftness that spoke of already having scoped out the place beforehand.

Dominique, while having started a sudden relationship with another person, was in no hurry to entrust his wellbeing to another person. But… the only thing that could hurt him in this house was if he slashed himself.

As such, he was a bit laxer than he was usually.

However, his curiosity got the better of him, so he was following Elias around as he did what he wanted to do.

He still had reservations about what had suddenly happened. It was like a bolt out of the blue that someone suddenly confessed to him in this situation.

The most baffling thing about it was that Dominique actually didn't reject him.

But he also respected when Elias told him not to interfere unless he was going to die.

This made him slightly more approving when he realized that Elias still had his guard up and wasn't going to randomly trust a literal stranger with things that he already had an idea about what he was going to do.

After all… they'd just met.

Cher or not, that didn't mean that he knew what kind of person he was.

Elias checked the various rooms that the place held, memorizing what he wanted.

He quickly knocked out the various guards who were patrolling the place with swift, practiced moves.

He locked the maidservants in a single room so that they couldn't cry for help after checking that they were all civilians. There weren't as many servants in this building compared to how upscale it was, which was strange.

Dominique raised a brow.

Not bad.

Elias was better than he thought. Perhaps it was a clan thing?

Boss was also very proficient in moves that worked against people's blind spots and sneaking around in general. Not that he needed it, but Dominique had noticed that it seemed to be ingrained in them.

It suddenly made him curious about what kind of training the clan gave its members.

Elias so far seemed to be competent and smart about the way he was going about things.

While it wasn't Dominique's usual method of going about his missions, he could respect it.

Perhaps it helped that it was similar in decision making to the way Boss went about things.

Dominique paused, feeling a little unhappy about the direction his thoughts kept going.

He had given his word that he would date Elias for six months, and that meant that he could only look at Elias as a person for himself. He was not allowed to compare him to Boss in his head.

Dominique faded his presence a little more, making sure to keep his eyes on Elias.

Elias, on the other hand, was feeling more in his element now.

Compared to facing Dominique with his pounding heart, this was something he was used to. Something he'd been trained for.

On the other hand, love had never felt so terrifying to him.

It couldn't be compared to the familial love he felt for his parents, nor the sibling-like bond he shared with Cyrus, Zach, Tatiana and Alec.

This was something so deep that it threatened to swallow him whole and devour him until there was nothing left.

It was as if his ego would take a hit if he did something that Dominique didn't like. Like he couldn't breathe if he didn't have Dominique's eyes on him at all time.

It left him disconcerted.

It was unsettling.

Still, it had been something that he'd waited for with bated breath, from the first day that his mother told him about what it meant to be a Cher.

What it meant to have someone out there who was literally the other half of your soul.

Sure, he had not expected to meet 'the one' as a prisoner in someone else's house, but that didn't mean that he treasured his meeting with him any less.

To be honest, he always thought that it would be a girl, but the moment he met eyes with Dominique it was like his entire world snapped into place in that instant. Who could tell him what it was like when a Cher met their fated one for the first time?

Words couldn't describe it properly. It was so much more.

Elias hurriedly shook the thoughts away. This was not the time to dwell in thoughts like those. One mistake, and he would definitely be exposed.

It wasn't that he couldn't take care of the people that would come, but rather… perhaps it was something like wanting to look good in front of the person he liked, right?

Showing off his cool side to someone he wanted to impress.

Dominique's presence disappeared from Elias' side, but he could still feel the eyes on him.

It made him shiver a little, but he didn't show any other actions.

Elias swept the place, making sure he took care of the bodyguards without them being to alert each other.

He quickly stripped them naked and threw their clothes away, binding them tightly without them being able to move even if they woke up.

Dominique's lips twitched in amusement.

This was… indeed the style of the Neil Clan.

Stripping them completely naked to make sure that there was nothing else they could use to get out of the predicament.

He'd seen not only Boss do it, but also Tatiana…

He wondered. Just how many of them adhered by this rule?

His lips twitched a little. Suddenly, he found it hilarious.

Elias didn't approach the rooms that had items in them, and he also ignored the rooms that had people inside that weren't part of the household staff.

Dominique was a little curious. "You're not going to save them?"

By 'them' he meant that people who had obviously been 'kidnapped' like Elias himself.

Elias raised a brow. "They can save themselves. Why should I waste my energy on saving people that don't want to be saved? People have to take action themselves for it to count!"

He didn't want the person he liked to dislike him, but… he also wouldn't discard his principles to please someone else. Even if it was 'the one'.

Dominique smirked, but it wasn't seen by Elias.

He agreed completely.

He'd just been thinking about that earlier on, but he wondered if Elias was softer than he was.

Reality proved that… it was different from what he thought! Dominique consciously evaluated Elias as a person.

Somehow, it felt different from when he evaluated the rest of the Spectres, or when he looked to find flaws in someone's fighting stance.

This was the first time that he'd seriously looked at someone for themselves, looking at their actions, thoughts and reasoning.

It was strange, but also gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.

Elias finally made his way to the bigshot's room.

There were four bodyguards that were standing outside, so it would not be as easy as before.

He thought about it a little before he went to the other side of the large house, using a communication device each of the (now naked) bodyguards had.

Activating it, they would come running quickly.

Before they came, he meticulously prepared a trap here for them to step into.

Dominique raised a brow when he saw a seal that he was very familiar with.

"You're familiar with Boss?"

Elias paused. "Boss?"

"Alec Neil."

Elias let out a chuckle. "You could say that. We grew up together, after all. We're like brothers."

Dominique was stunned. They really knew each other!

…What should he do now?

Elias triggered the communication device. "Intruders in the left wing!" he said in a low, calm voice.

Soon, a few sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Chapter end

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