Nadine's Discovery

* * * *

[Excerpt from the future]

Ray laid naked with Elora silently in the darkness, listening to her soft and calm breaths as she slept.

The previous night had been very pleasant, he had made love with her six times, and if she hadn't begged him to stop because she was tired, he would've possibly continued.

Now, all he could do was think about the consequences of his actions, he could swear that he felt something leave him as he made love to Elora, as if a huge part of his power had been taken away.

'The curse is real... The longer I stay with her, the weaker I get, but I don't want to leave her, she's everything I need, she's everything I want...'

Suddenly, it seemed as if the room had gotten colder,

"Mmmm"

Elora snuggled closer to him in her sleep, pressing her huge soft teats on his bare back.

"Ray?"

"Yes?"

"You're awake already?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm cold..." Her teeth chattered as she spoke depicting how cold the weather was.

"Don't worry, I'm here..." Ray said as he turned and wrapped his arms around her. She purred satisfactorily and went back to sleep.

'....I already love her too much to leave her right now. I'm gonna stick with her till the end. I don't care if I get weaker or not, after all no one in Hell can face off against me, Elora or not, I am still Lucian the demon prince of wrath.' Ray thought finally as he slowly stroked her long blonde hair.

* * * *

[Present Day]

GALLANT COMPANIES HQ

10:00 PM

Nadine was leaving the office when she heard the sound.

The sound of a switch being turned on- or off and the faint rustling of papers.

'What is that?' she thought as she paused in her tracks, few metres away from the escalator that would take her downstairs and out of the building.

'That's none of your business.' her mind seemed to tell her and she wanted to continue walking when another thought hit her.

'There's no one in the office by this time, don't you think that the person making that noise might be a burglar or a spy?'

Nadine stiffened up at that realization and crept closer to the hallway where the sound was coming from, taking care not to make too much noise with her high heels that made a clacking sound on the tiles with every careless step that she took.

On getting closer, she heard two distinct male voices and she traced them to one of the offices on that hallways, the office of her best friend's boyfriend, Derek.

The hallway was dark and the only source of light was the one from the slightly open door of Derek's office. She moved closer to the door and peeped in, trying to find out whether the person there was a burglar but her suspicion was sorely disappointed and she was greatly relieved when she saw two dashingly handsome men in the room talking to each other, it was Derek and Finn, one of their colleagues.

'Phew!' Nadine thought, 'For a moment there, I thought they were burglars.' She wanted to walk into the room and greet the boys but the next words that came out of Derek's mouth left her rooted to the spot.

"You mean Elora?" Derek said calmly as he rustled through a pile of documents on his table.

'Elora? What happened to Elora?'

Nadine stiffened up at the sound of her best friend's name and she paused to hear what Derek had to say.

"Yes," Finn replied. He was leaning against the bare white wall on the other side of Derek's office.

"Well... She's just another one of the chicks that I wanna bang." Nadine felt a stab of pain in her chest at the way Derek made his statement, as if he was talking about a random girl and not his girlfriend - her best friend.

"For real?" There was no surprise in Finn's tone, he just sounded a little amused, that's all. "You haven't banged her?"

"Yeah... You know she's all saintly and stuff. Always going on about how she wants to do it at right time."

"Trust issues."

"Yep. And it's annoying."

"Well.... But do you like her?"

"Bleh! I like her body, not her! She's too pious. Loves to make me play the goddamn gent."

"Hahaha" Finn laughed heartily, "But I thought this one would be the lucky girl you know... Seeing as you both get all lovey dovey all the time." Finn laughed.

"It's just the format." Derek said and whipped out a paper, he seemed to have found what he was searching for.

Nadine had no interest to linger around and listen to these liars and cheats, lest she gets caught, but she didn't miss the last thing Derek said. "To get a girl, you have to be the man the girl wants."

'Fucking liars and manipulators!' Nadine spat and scuttled out of the building in anger.

* * * *

LOVE BITES EATERY

10:00PM

The eatery had closed for the night and Zari, a waiter who worked there was cleaning up after the customers who had left. It was her day on duty so the others had left without her, there was no other person left in the restaurant– or so she thought.

Zari was a five foot five twenty year old young lady who had long luscious black hair that sat beautifully on top of her round face that had glossy olive skin. Her brown eyes, pointed nose and soft pink lips gave her face the impression of a goddess of beauty. Apart from facial beauty, Zari was also endowed with natural womanly curves that were just the perfect size for her height. Naturally, Zari wouldn't need to struggle with the world's top models in terms of beauty.

Normally, one would expect that Zari would be the type of girl that would have a rich, handsome boyfriend who drove a convertible and loved throwing parties but that wasn't the case as Zari was somewhat of a bloke. She was rude, mean, sassy and abnormally strong– stronger than most full fledged men. She didn't care what anybody said about her as long as it didn't affect her. Countless times, she had beat men up for trying to touch her and that had gained her an infamous reputation that if you came to Love Bites Eatery, she would be the first person they would warn you against.

Zari was an orphan, her mother died when she was born and her father left her and ran away when she was twelve, since then she had taken care of herself and her needs. It had been hard, but she did it anyways and now, here she was with a nice job and a happy carefree life.

Waiting at a restaurant wasn't exactly the ideal life that Zari had planned for herself but she felt that she could manage for the meantime.

JINGLE JINGLE

The bells at the front door rang– someone had just walked in.

"I'm sorry but we're closed for the day." Zari's words hung in the air as she saw four hefty men dressed in perfect sized black suits walking towards her. It's either that they didn't hear her or they did and they didn't want to reply. As soon as the men walked in, Zari felt a strange feeling, as if she was being preyed upon.

"I'm not quite sure you heard me the first time.." Zari pressed on stubbornly, "I said we've closed for the day."

"Oh we heard you quite alright." One of the men said, he was the one in front of them and he had a voice so deep that it seemed like it would shake the building to it's core, "We just don't care..."

Zari raised an eyebrow,

"...see, we're looking for a certain woman."

"What makes you think I care?"

"You should... because you are that woman." The man fixed a hard gaze on her as he took one step forward, she too took one step backwards.

"What are you talking about here?" For someone who was just confronted by hefty looking men all dressed in suits looking like armed robbers, Zari wasn't worried– she was actually starting to get angry. "Get away from here, or else I'll call 911."

"Feel free to do so," the man sneered, "You'll be out of here before they arrive."

"Is this an abduction or something?"

"It won't be if you agree to come with us without any problems."

"And why will I come with you?" Zari's stubbornness and anger seemed to have reached it's limit because her voice was vibrating with rage.

"Because you have no choice," the man continued, "so are you coming or do I have to carry you?"

Zari couldn't even bear the thought of this man carrying her and there was no way on Earth she was going with him– the notion was just so absurd.

"Go. To. Hell." Zari said and blew a gum bubble in the man's face.

His face quickly contorted in rage and he made to grab Zari but she moved with an agility that he never knew she had and knocked him over one of the tables, shattering the glass cups on it.

"Shit! Now I'm gonna pay for all that." Zari cursed.

She looked up in time to see the other three men rushing at her with daggers in their hands and she did a few manoeuvers causing them to end up where their boss ended.

She had managed to wrest a dagger from one of their hands and now she twirled it on her palm with a maniacal smile. "I'll teach you guys a lesson you'll never forget today so that you'll never bother young girls again."