Chapter 34

As Charlie turned the shower on, he thought about the scroll he'd found today. He'd never met him grandfather before, and anxiousness filled him at the thought of what this encounter would be like.

According to the scroll, the soul-summoning ritual was meant to be held at the Devil's triangle, which was located in the deepest parts of hell. He intended to head there immediately after dropping Stacy off at the safehouse tomorrow morning, as there was no time to waste regarding such matters.

His mind wondered on all the things that would be revealed to him at the devil's triangle. He couldn't wait. Somehow since the revelation, he'd wished that his father would have gone the extra mile to protect his mother, or at least tried to make peace with the Vanard clan. Maybe his grandfather wouldn't have had to lay down his life. He took a deep breath as he closed the shower knob and headed back to the room to meet Stacy.

Shock met him upon the next thing he saw.

Stacy was struggling with a knife held against her neck. Her mouth had been tied up, and a masked demon was standing right behind her, holding the dagger.

There was also another masked demon in the bedroom, he also armed with a dangerous weapon; a metal hook that could tear the flesh of any human severely in just one swish. He was the one who first spoke to Charlie.

"Hand over the scroll or she dies! You take one step forward and she gets it!" He threatened.

"Charlie, no don't listen to him!" Stacy yelled as she tried to break free from the tight grasp of the demon who held her, but she couldn't. She realized if she tried to struggle any further, the knife would cut her neck deeply; so she had no choice but to remain still.

"It's ok," Charlie panted, "just let her go, I'll give you the scroll but if you lay a finger on her, you're dead!"

"Where is it?" the masked demon asked.

Charlie pointed at the table where the scroll lay, as Stacy had left it there after their conversation.

The demon went over to the table, picked it up, and signified to the other demon who still held Stacy. He then hurriedly flew out through the window.

"Now let her go," Charlie growled at the other demon who, within the blink of an eye, disappeared from the room, leaving poor Stacy on the floor, gasping for air.

He ran towards her, "Are you Ok?"

"Yes," she replied, rubbing her hand against her neck to soothe the tension placed there earlier, "but aren't you going to go after them?"

He shook his head. "No, that would mean leaving you alone again, and look at what happened when I did so much as going to the bathroom."

"I'm sorry," she muttered, "this is all because of me!"

"It's not your fault, I should have sensed their presence when they came in. I was too distracted in the shower."

"You've lost the scroll. And that was the only lead you had toward the investigation. What are you going to do now?"

"First thing first. I'm going to take you to the safe house in the morning before I think of anything else. You see why it's too dangerous to leave you in this part of the world. Now, try to forget what happened, go back to sleep my love, I will watch over you."

"But what about the scroll?" Stacy still asked.

"Don't worry about that, there should be some other way to contact my grandfather. The most important thing now is keeping you safe. I won't be able to get anything done at this rate if demons keep coming after you."

"Fine," Stacy sighed, and with that Charlie hoisted her up and carried her to the bed. She cuddled up beside him as she closed her eyes and not quite long after, she was fast asleep.

***

Another way to the truth…

Hiva laughed as he flew towards the Vanard castle; the scroll he had taken from Charlie which he held in his hand. As they entered the king's chambers, Keito greeted him with a smile.

"Welcome, my fellow Lord, what good news have you come to deliver today?"

He thought of whether to deliver the bad news or the good news first, but then brushed the bad news aside. It would not be good for him now if Keito found out that Charlie had become king. That would be something to deal with for another day, a day when he would have achieved much success in another task for Keito to even bother about that.

"The two demons you sent to capture her failed their assignment and became runaways. I had to hunt them down and kill them," Hiva stated as he walked forward to move closer to the Vanard king.

"Oh,! And I was just beginning to get worried that I hadn't heard anything from them. Anyways, good riddance. But it seems like there's more," Keito inquired as his eyes moved towards the scroll Hiva held in his hand.

"Luther's son came to the clan house yesterday searching through the study for some piece of information. He didn't want to be seen, so I guessed that he might have been looking for some form of evidence that might implicate us. He is already beginning to suspect. Although I doubt if he knows that I was the one behind the attempted kidnap, I cloned and disguised myself and my voice to steal this from his house last night, this was what he took from the study," he said as he handed the scroll to Keito.

"I have been trying to read what it says, but I think it's only meant for royals, for a powerful demon master such as myself not to understand what is written there."

Keito opened the scroll and looked at it for a few minutes, then he read it out loud:

"In the center of the devil's triangle,

By the service of a true scion of Lucifer,

The soul of a fallen demon awakens;

Place the scroll in the middle

Spin around the triangle

Each spin representing the 7 thaumata

Pray unto the soul of the deceased

The hour will divide itself by six

And the soul of the lost shall be found"

"It sounds like he wants to reawaken the soul of a dead demon," Keito interpreted after reading out the wordings on the scroll.

"His grandfather," Hiva let out, after realizing what Keito had just said. "He wants to reawaken the soul of his dead grandfather."