Veronica was stunned. Let Stephen, who had just returned after his business was finished, escort her home. She was mentally shaken after he declared his interest in her which she thought was too sudden so she did not listen to Karl afterwards. Her brain went blank. Like a F4-size paper book which was still white, losing all the scribbles that had decorated the book. She could not process what she just heard from the black-haired man with an Asian face. In fact, she forgot to thank Stephen for bringing her home.
"Nikki? Hello?"
A heavy pat on her shoulder brought her back to her senses. She turned around, looked at Stephen who was standing behind her, laughing softly at her.
"Finally you're awake. Your forehead will soon hit the door of your own apartment."
"Ah ... oh!" Veronica stared at the door of her apartment which was a few centimetres from her face, then moved away from the door of her apartment. "Yes, you're right. Thanks."
Veronica just realized that the man escorted her to the door of her apartment. Her hand immediately reached for the key to the apartment that she kept in her bag. Too nervous, she even dropped the key to her apartment. The man immediately moved closer, picking up the key before she could do it.
"Let me open the door. You must be tired," said Stephen, taking over to open the apartment door for her while returning the key to her after she got inside. “See you tomorrow, Nikki. Have a good sleep."
"But it's still six in the evening!"
"I know," says Stephen, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, shrugging his shoulders. "But early is better, right? I had been asking you when I got in the car, but you were stunned, so I let it go. What was your impression of my friend earlier? "
"An interesting person," replied Veronica, quickly. There was no way she could tell Stephen that she was almost tempted to touch his friend's solid ass. Surely that man would think of her as a perverted woman. So, that was the only answer she could give Stephen.
"Only that? Seeing your reaction earlier, it seems more than that. Well, it's better to keep the details to yourself. You must be surprised because of Karl's love statement, right?"
She gave him a sharp glare, surprised to hear Stephen's guess that hit the spot. "How do you know?!"
"Because that's what Karl keeps saying every time he talks about your meeting. Until my ears hurt to hear it. But my friend is right. You are far more attractive than all the women I've dated."
Her eyes narrowed when she heard Stephen's answer, which reminded her of Bianca. There was a feeling of disappointment that came to her chest. "So I was one of the women you've been close to?"
The man did not seem to dismiss her last words which were sarcastic, because the man stroked the back of his neck, looking awkward.
"Well, yeah. Better not get too close to me, Nikki. I am not someone you can categorize as a good person, but my friend… well, you can trust me on this one. Karl is someone you can count on."
Veronica rolled her eyes. Very nice. The man in front of her managed to destroy the first impression that man seemed to have made unconsciously during their first meeting at the cafe.
"As you say, Stephen. I'm a little tired and need a break. So, good night," she said, losing interest in continuing their conversation and slamming the door of her apartment right in Stephen's face, as he was shocked at the change in her emotions. She caught a glimpse of Stephen's face, which turned grim for a moment.
What a strange man, she muttered to herself. But she was even weird because she liked a man who was clearly not in the mood to take their relationship to a more serious stage.
Veronica was still standing at her apartment door, snorting in annoyance. She did not know why she was so upset to hear that she was not the first woman Stephen Laurent approached. Well, come on, how could a guy as handsome as Stephen Laurent not date all his life?
Compared to Stephen, Karl Smith was a lot better than him.
No, no. Why did she start comparing the two men she just met today?
Veronica patted her cheeks lightly, shaking her head to dispel her reverie. Took out the sneakers that she kept in the box in the bag and put them in the shoe rack near the entrance to her apartment, along with the red high heels Karl gave her that she was wearing. Then walked limply to her bedroom.
***
Veronica's breath immediately caught on as soon as she woke up from her dream. She swallowed hard, wiped the cold sweat that ran down her forehead as she picked up the digital watch on her nightstand. Three o'clock in the morning. Her hand returned the watch to the table, while she adjusted her breath back to normal.
After returning from Karl's residence, her body was seized with fatigue, so she decided to use the rest of her time to sleep even though she knew that she still had work to do the Victimology course that had to be submitted next week.
The nightmare that had not haunted her for two years began to appear again. She has spent most of her life visiting psychiatrists every month to deal with trauma after an assault incident that cost her leg at the age of eight. Veronica touched her thigh, stroking the missing leg grimly. She tried to close her eyes. However, her memory was still fixed on the incident twelve years ago.
At the quarrels of her parents that always happened every day at that time ...
On her decision to leave home because she could not stand it and ran until she got lost deep in the cold forest, in the dark of the night when the moon was half-full ...
To her fear when the wolf-eyed hazel, full of anger ran towards her. Biting both of her legs until she screamed in pain and lost consciousness ...
No matter how hard she tried to provoke her memory to remember more about the incident, her memories always stopped there. Then over and over. At first, it would spin very slowly, then faster, and faster, until her head was throbbing because she could not bear the memory that was spinning too fast. As it was now. She gripped her blanket, trying to shake the memory from her mind.
Sometime later, the memory flashback disappeared. She breathed a sigh of relief, lay back down on her bed. Her eyes looked up to the ceiling. Remembering Stephen's gloomy expression for a moment when he saw her angry. Did that man know anything about the incident, considering that the figure who had attacked her was a werewolf?
That was true. It was possible that the man had found out, and had purposely kept that fact secret from him. Stephen's werewolf background must have given the man a reason to protect his fellow werewolves.
Suddenly, she hated Stephen.
Veronica once again gripped the sheet with all her strength until her knuckles turned white. She could not go back to sleep. What if the nightmare came back to haunted her again?
Taking the umpteenth long sigh, Veronica threw the blanket she was wearing earlier on to the side of the bed, jumping out of bed. It was better to use her time to continue her task which she had delayed this afternoon so that her mind would be diverted from the dream. She stared at her prosthetic leg for a moment, then chose to grab a pair of crutches that lay beside her prosthetic leg. Walked to her desk, she turned on her laptop. The laptop battery indicator light turned red.
Shit. She forgot to charge her laptop battery yesterday before she went to bed.
Annoyed, she cursed her own stupidity, plugging the charging cable into her laptop. Her mind tried to recall the dream, which she quickly shook off. As soon as the Windows 10 logo appears on her laptop screen, she looked for her task file, starts working on the task. Her drowsiness had completely disappeared when she had to read a five hundred page electronic learning module, marking the section her lecturer asked for the day before yesterday.
***“Montessa! Is the time spell ready?”Bianca called out to Montessa as she ran up to Montessa. He played with the glocks still in his hand, then returned them to Montessa. “Thank you for wanting to lend me your weapon.”"Yes. Already!" On Montessa's right, a dimensional portal appears that is the same as Nora's, but has a lighter colour. Montessa's eyes turned to the soldiers who were now running like crazy after stuffing the glocks into their pockets. "What's wrong with them? What did you do to them?”"It's not the important thing you should be thinking about," Bianca patted Montessa on the shoulder. "Can we go in now? I hope your spell won't throw us into the wrong timeline.”“Hey, what you said hurts you know!” Montessa defended herself. “I always succeed in casting my spells when it comes to time magic. “And yes, it is safe. We're going back to the 21st century.”"Good," he turned his head back, looking at Erna's figure standing behind him.Erna's hand gripped his hand tightly, vis
Can they say that the mission was a success or not? That question kept popping up in Bianca's mind again and again as they ran to avoid the pursuit of the royal guards. In front of her, Montessa ran along with Felicia Chen, whom they managed to release from prison. All she knew, for now, was that she couldn't let go of Erna's wrist, which was running behind her. “How much longer we should wait!?” she shouted at Montessa, who was in front of her. "What?! I didn't hear your question, Pedrosa!” Montessa called back to Bianca, then turned his gaze back to the front as he saw more and more royal troops chasing the two of them. “I'm trying to recover my magic energy! Buy some more time!” “Easy for you to say, old man!” Bianca pulled Erna into her arms when she saw one of the royal troops trying to cut Erna with his sword. She parried the sword using his leg kick and threw the sword so that it stuck into one of the trees around the forest path. “Montessa! Lend me some weapons! There are
Karl hummed happily and fell in love with the new magic sword Alec had created for him. The sword that belonged to his grandfather, which he gave to Nora in exchange for Veronica's safety (he did not regret his decision at the time), he could indeed use without the slightest problem. But in all aspects, the sword was out of character for him.First, in terms of design. He was actually not a fan of swords that had lots of carvings on them. His taste was very different from his grandfather's sword, which has that element. In terms of the magical energy that can be absorbed by the magic sword inherited from his grandfather, there was not much the sword could absorb from his energy, because the sword inherited from his grandfather tended to use the emotions of its user.When his grandfather was still alive, his grandfather was the type of person who was easily provoked by anger. That disposition of his was also justified by his life principle of glorifying the dragon race. From the pas
Until an hour ago, they were still at Alec's house, trying out the new magic weapon Alec created.But right now, he and Karl and Stephen are busy helping Alex and Nicholas to kill the monsters that come to Alec's house.The monster was like Alec's description a while ago while visiting Pedrosa's residence. He had never come face to face with a monster created by William Schneider, so he was very surprised to see the real shape of the monster.He slashed one of the heads of the monsters that were about to attack him with their canine teeth. Their blood spurted out, hitting his body, emitting a strange hiss.There was a feeling of pity in him as he looked at the corpse of the monster in front of him. Recalling what Karl had said about the origins of the monsters, he felt some sympathy. In the past, these monsters had a quiet life.If it weren't for William Schneider, they might still be enjoying their quiet lives right now...A feeling of hatred for William Schneider welled up inside Ve
William tapped his fingers nervously on his desk. Currently he was in his office at the university where Veronica Darren studied, with an irritated and bored expression.He didn't care about the rows of work piled up on his desk. Or the list of files in his email when he turns on his computer as soon as he enters his study.Or the attention of the students who tried to approach him. Or also the fact that at work, there are so many bouquets of flowers, snacks, or gift boxes of various sizes filling the room.He didn't care about that.All he cared about was Veronica Darren's presence. But since two weeks ago, that woman has not been on campus at all, nor has she attended any of her classes. Even though the woman submitted her course work via e-mail about three days ago.Where has Veronica gone? What happened to Veronica not to show her nose on campus? Even though he had gone to great lengths to infiltrate the university as a lecturer so he could approach Veronica.Now, he felt like an
Don't do anything flashy, huh?Both Erna and Bianca looked at Montessa with deep eyes. Because of Montessa's stupidity that didn't estimate the risks that would occur if she went straight to the prison, the royal guards immediately arrested the three of them and took them to a room in the prison building.There were no windows around where they were, so all they could do was guess how long they had been there. There were only flaming torches hanging on the walls to illuminate the place.Even more annoying, the room was so damp and smelly, that it was difficult for him to feel comfortable staying in this place for a long time. He even admired the fighting spirit of the people who used to languish in this prison.Across the prison they were in, there was an old woman with a shabby appearance who kept cursing in a language she didn't understand towards the prison guards who were passing through the corridors of the prison."I didn't expect that the plan I made would end like this," Monte