Edited by Mjonir77
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– Uhhhehhh Ehh !!!
The guy was still squirming on the ground, screaming. I wasn’t paying attention to him and just continued my stare contest with the demon. I wasn’t an overly possessive person but this demon just reeked the word “trouble”.
– Heh !
He smiled at me for a moment and closed his eyes severing our eye contact.
Illeana who was standing next to the entrance looked at me, a bit confused, then looked at the guy who was screaming on the ground and back at me. Her gaze held perplexity; if I had to describe it; of course I harmed one of her men but I had a valid reason to do so : it was self-defense.
She started to walk forward and issued orders to the vampires who were still frozen at place.
– Bring him to the doctor and then go home, we won’t be opening today…
With her words, some snapped out of it and started carrying the guy who had finally fainted (what a noisy lad) but still emitted whimpering sounds… but when they started to move him he woke up and screamed even more because of the movement, making the others a bit at loss about what to do.
Illeana walked beside me and gestured me to follow her so I did. She didn’t seem to mind me breaking the bones of one of her men and just calmly continued walking up the stairs.
Alissa seemed a bit sour for some reason while looking at me, her friends were indifferent to it thou; concerning the deal with the 3 demons, they were just keeping a neutral face while the leader was keeping a friendly grin. I also noticed he took a couple glances at me which also really disturbed me.
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– So explain please ?
Right now we were all sitting in Illeana’s office; well there were only me, the demon guy and Illeana here while the rest was next door, waiting in the lobby.
I looked at Illeana while making a wry smile. She didn’t seem to be angry nor annoyed, more like she wanted to hear my reason for hurting that guy.
– You see, he told me a joke so I told him mine… which he didn’t seem to like and he lunged at me, so I had to defend myself…
Illeana kept her eyes narrowed for a minute and just sighed.
– Alright, I understand… sorry about him.
I didn’t really understand but I just nodded to her.
The demon guy who was sitting next to me shifted in his seat a bit and said :
– Hmm quite interesting, won’t you introduce us Ms. Illeana ?
I looked at him again and at his overall appearance : he had short black hair and brown eyes, his build was skinny but tall and he was holding a cane in his hand since the very beginning. I noticed this guy had some leg problems but overall he looked very young, like the female demons.
Illeana seemed a bit skeptical and hesitated to say anything but it didn’t seem like she could refuse something as simple as that.
– Dawn, he is the representative of the demon folk. The reason he came today was to apologize for the incident that occurred here last time involving those demons. His name is Abrax and his last name is too long to pronounce so I don’t remember.
I could see a slight grin on Illeana’s face when she said that, the demon also blinked for a second. He hid his displeasure well but well enough.
– Abrax, this is Dawn. He works as a bodyguard and is a friend of mine… well kinda.
Hmm, she didn’t say I worked for the Greenwood house; I should probably remember to not say who I work for, huh.
Abrax seemed like he didn’t like the short introduction so he turned to me.
– You are quite young to risk your life for someone but at the same time your determination seems limitless so I am really curious about where you may work, on top of that you are a mortal…
– Abrax… i think we already finished out conversation regarding your apology : as I said, I already accepted it.
Illeana said sternly.
Abrax just nodded and got up from his seat, about to leave, but before he left he turned to me again, pulled out a red business card from his breast pocket and gave it to me.
– If you are in need of help, please call me. Who knows, I may need your services as a bodyguard one day and don’t be shy about asking favors
Illeana snorted at his remark which he obviously ignored and like that I saw him leave the room. I looked at the card he had given me : it was pure red as if it was dipped in blood and with some touches of black; there was a phone number written on it.
– You should probably just throw it away, nothing good comes from making a deal with a demon…
Her voice sounded a bit distant and hateful when she mentioned it… personal experience I guess ?
I pocketed the card anyway, it never hurt to have more than one connection, even if the other side is a demon.
– So, why are you here ? I already talked with that butler and you sure held your part of the bargain.
She smiled when she said that. I really didn’t know what she meant by that but Steward really did resolve the issue huh.
– I need some help actually.
When I said that, Illeana looked at me a bit wide eyed. I was confused about why she was looking at me like that…
– What ?
I asked.
– No, it’s nothing… it’s just that you didn’t strike me as a guy who would ask for a favor… anyway tell how I can help you, if I have the power to do so, I’ll do ! And it’s free of charges; take it as a sign of gratitude for the rescue last time.
I nodded and started talking about how I needed to find a specific girl with white hair, golden eyes and between 8 to 10 years old. She didn’t ask why I needed to find such a girl, making it a bit easier to me.
– The time limit ?
I thought for a bit… there wasn’t really a time limit but I would like her to find that girl as fast as possible.
– Can you just look for her as fast as possible and then call me ?
She thought for a minute and suddenly pulled out a piece of paper and said :
– Do you have anything that connects her to ? Like something she used to own or anything she was in contact with ?
I thought for a bit… No, I was actually searching for her blindly and the reason I was here was because… Wait, maybe ?
I pulled out the golden pocket watch from my breast pocket. I actually didn’t know if she ever touched this clock… Chronos only told me to give this to his daughter and let her push the button but nothing else, how did he even expect me to find her ?!
– I take it that it’s the item ?
– Maybe, I don’t know…
I said a bit frustrated…
Illeana nodded and wrote something on the paper . When she finished, she knitted it 4 times, gave it to me and said :
– I’ll do what I can to help you. That paper I just gave is the contact of someone I know; his name is Caïne and he actually lives in the outskirts of the city so you should take a car…
Suddenly she clapped her hands, her eyes were shining too.
– How about my granddaughter escorts you ?
I felt like she wasn’t actually trying to help me now…
– Yeah, alright.
I said a bit helpless about her suggestion. If I told her this deal was about my life, would she help me a bit more ? I wondered…
While I was thinking so, I suddenly remembered the incident this morning with those cops…
– By the way do you know…
I asked her if anything happened for the last 2 weeks and mentioned the police who wanted to interrogate. She sounded a bit displeased when I mentioned the police and then explained me this :
It seemed like before I had arrived here, some kind of werewolf had gone rogue and killed 3 people in his rampage. The incident was quite unsettling because she said that usually when a werewolf turned for the very first time there would always be someone supervising it and making sure he wouldn’t go rogue.
If a werewolf went rogue, there was no other choice than to kill it, but the strange thing about this incident was that the werewolf was in the middle of the city and didn’t belong to any werewolf group of Los Angeles.
– Couldn’t the other werewolf groups just lie when they said he didn’t belong to them ?
Illeana shook her head and said :
– We even made the local Fenrir come and order the werewolves to say the truth which made them all clean since no pack member can disobey his orders; they would even die if they were commanded to, so the only theory we have is that the werewolf came from somewhere else or….
I thought for a bit and said :
– He was smuggled in ?
Illeana looked a bit worried when I said it but I seemed to have hit the mark.
– Yes, that’s also a possibility because werewolves are able to sense other werewolves who aren’t in their pack. It is very hard to believe he just strolled into the city and randomly started to go rogue but that possibility might be the scariest one if you ask me…
She stood up and looked outside the window, thoughtful…..
I also thought about that incident it was surely a conspiracy on a supernatural level, but at the same time it didn’t have anything to do with me… yet.
I stood up from my seat and said :
– Thank you for your help, I will be sure to return the favor in the future.
I bowed to her. She smiled at me and said :
– As I said, take this as a sign of gratitude; who knows, maybe we can help each other in the future ?
She showed me her hand which I took and we both started shaking hands.
Illeana then decided to escort me to the exit. I told her she didn’t need to but she insisted, so I just agreed. When we got out of the office, Alissa seemed ready to go and followed us downstairs. I wondered if she hear everything we talked about ?
We soon started to descend, coming into the large deserted hall. It was sure fascinating how big and colorful this club was. Out of all places I had seen so far, this one was really pretty, even more than the academy which mainly looked just luxurious.
Illeana noticing my prolonged gaze and told me :
– We usually don’t get customers on daylight, only a few people come here to drink usually and those are mostly vampires. Well, there are more amazing and bigger branches than this club; I am after all the president of the californian branch.
She said a bit pride mixed in her words… She was the president from the california branch so who was….
– Then who is the founder?
Illeana stopped for a second, she thought very hard and said :
– I actually don’t know… You see, all the state branches are operated by vampires so it is certain the founder is also a vampire. The problem is no one really saw the founder face to face; we usually get promoted and I was chosen by the last president to become his predecessor a long time ago so I didn’t meet the founder, it is not even certain the founder is still alive or not.
I was confused.
– So how do you guys work ?
I asked.
Illeana smiled and said :
– We usually transport the profit into a certain portal, no one really knows where the portal goes and not one mage or scholar could decipher the strange symbols on the portal, so a lot of people just gave up on that.
– Couldn’t you just stop sending the profit ?
That way the founder wouldn’t have any other way but to go personally or send someone.
Illeana once again smiled with a knowing smile and said :
– There were branch presidents that actually tried that before but it didn’t end well for them…
– Why ?
I asked reflexively.
– They died the next day…
– …
Wait ! Nothing else, just die ? I massaged my temples for a moment… maybe I shouldn’t have asked her about this.
Illeana seemed a bit amused by my reaction and suddenly remembered something :
– Ahh right ! I may know something, there was this rumor regarding the name of the founder…
Because the story was pretty good I asked her what it was and she said :
– People said the person was a female and her name was Elyssa; some said she used to walk the earth searching for her one true love so she made the club to gain money and help her search for her beloved. It was actually never specified who it was, pretty romantic right ?
Illeana laughed because of it. She probably didn’t believe this rumor either but at the same time it would be interesting if it was true.
With that thought, we left the club.
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First and love this series…