Lost in Demon's Eyes

15 - A date

I was waiting outside of the club, looking at my toes and swinging back and forth. It was well over those ten minutes he had mentioned a while ago. I was even beginning to think that he had only meant it as a joke. Or that he lost a bet and had to ask a lonely-looking girl out.

“Who the heck is lonely here, I’m not,” I uttered to myself, banishing the thought that I was lonely. I had my brother and Cérise here. I wasn’t lonely at all. I never was. There were too many people around me all the time, that I had never had the time to even think that I was lonely.

“Sorry for the wait! It took a tiny bit longer than I thought. Coffee?” The brown Oxfords that stepped right in front of me, told me it was the guy I had been waiting for even before he started speaking.

“Are you mad I made you wait for so long?” I lifted my head. My arms were still crossed in front of my chest.

“No, it’s fine!” I tried to squeeze out a smile. I was getting bored while waiting. I never liked waiting, anyway.

“You sure you aren’t mad? I wouldn’t want to make you mad right on the first date!” He offered me his hand, so we would start walking. But I didn’t feel like touching, still, a stranger.

“I just got a bit too much into my thoughts. Which way?” I asked, still not feeling the thrill for the waiting time.

“Ah, this way.” He stopped offering me his hand and instead showed the way. I nodded and started walking that way. Dan was walking right next to me, he was quiet.

“Where are we going?” I asked him when we finally stood in front of his car. But before he had managed to answer, my phone disrupted the whole mood by loudly ringing in my bag. It was Ansel, who probably found out that I wasn’t in the club anymore.

“Sorry, I have to pick this up.” My lips widened with a small simper. I quickly answered the call.

“Where the hell are you?!” I bet Dan had to hear Ansel shouting over two meters away from me. Not to mention the loud music in the background.

“I’m going for a coffee,” I mumbled. I didn’t feel like talking to Ansel at all. I was standing here on the street, the silver Mercedes was blinking, while Dan was keeping his door open, not sure if he was supposed to get inside or not.

“With whom?!” I rolled my eyes up. I wasn’t a kid anymore. And moreover, HE wasn’t my nanny. Or our mum. He was my younger brother.

“A friend I met at the party. I will get home safely, you don’t need to worry. You want to talk to him?” I sighed, hoping this call would end as soon as possible.

“Wait there. I’m coming.” The music in the background disappeared. Ansel had to be on his way to meet Dan and probably drag me home. This was a nightmare, seriously. I couldn’t even talk to other people without Ansel’s presence and permission, not to mention going on dates. How was I supposed to date like this? Virgin until I turn fifty.

“Hey.” Ansel got here way too quickly and yet he didn’t seem out of breath at all.

“Are you going to introduce us?” Ansel asked me, staring at Dan. He was trying to intimidate him and scare him off.

“Do you know him?” Dan asked me, a charming smile on his lips. He closed the door of the car and walked over to do a small handshake with my brother.

“Sadly, yes. This is my brother, Ansel. Ansel, this is Daniel. A friend I met a while ago.” I introduced them. Ansel’s smirk told me this wasn’t going to go smoothly.

“Ansel, nice to meet you. Where are you heading to?” I was betting he was about to crush poor Dan’s knuckles, sending him off to a hospital for a cast right away.

“Daniel, pleasure on my side. I didn’t know that Zia had such a cool brother! Another new and nice thing to know about her. We were about to grab a coffee, you seemed quite busy, so we didn’t want to bother you.” I held my breath. Those two were having a diplomatic word battle, in which Dan was probably better than my brother.

“Well, I’m not a big fan of coffee. But perhaps they have some desserts? I could have those.” Ansel wasn’t going to get himself shut out. He had to stick his nose in this, even if his feet fell apart.

“Oh, afraid not. It’s quite late. But I can promise you we won’t be long. I can give you my business card in case you want to contact me.” Those two were still holding hands, not letting go. It was a fierce battle. Dan even had to reach for his business card with his left hand.

“Sure, thanks,” Ansel answered, taking it. They were still holding hands.

“Look at those two!”

“I know, right? Such a lovely couple, not wanting to part… Poor girl, I bet she’s the third wheel!”

I clicked my teeth. They did look like that, but those two passing girls didn’t have to say it so out loud! This could only make Ansel burst out in anger, which wasn’t entirely new to anyone from our huge family. But it just scared outsiders so much they usually ran away, leaving things behind. Or they started stuttering. Some of them froze on the spot. There were too many cases I had seen like that in the past. That’s also how my potential boyfriends had usually ended up ever since I turned fifteen and wanted to date someone.

Luckily, they pretended they didn’t hear anything, and they let go of each other’s hand right away.

“So, I guess you enjoy your coffee, then.” Ansel cleared his throat and looked like he was about to go back to the party.

“Thanks. I’ll drive her back safely.” Dan said without any further hesitation and offered to open the car door for me. I glanced at Ansel, who stopped for a while and stared at us to make sure Dan wasn’t mistreating me. Ansel then turned away and started walking back to the club as I was already getting inside the car.

“So, what kind of coffee do you like?” Well, that was a good question to ask. What kind of coffee did I like? Me, a person, who never had a drop of coffee.

“Uhm… well…” I was trying to figure out what to say. What am I even going to say? I don’t even know what kinds of coffees there are… And with caffein luck, I will probably stay up until 9 am, running on a treadmill and still not tired. I closed my eyes, trying to figure out a kind of light-flavored coffee with, hopefully, no caffeine.

“Or tea, perhaps? It’s a bit late.” If I was drinking water at this point, I’d be choking on it immediately. How did he know that? Is he a mind reader? I stole a glance at him, his eyes were fixated on the road. The car was quietly humming as there was nearly no traffic and the roads were quite empty compared to Paris.

“Yeah, I guess tea would be a better option.” I tried sounding that I didn’t really care much if it was coffee or tea. He didn’t need to know everything about me right from the beginning, right?

“Alright. Do you get carsick?” His lips turned into a big smile as his hand landed on the stick shift.

“I don’t think so.”

“Good.” He shifted the gears and the tires screeched on the road, entering a highway. We were going away from the city center and heading perhaps out of Prague. I frantically looked out of the window, seeing the city flashing away, while it was starting to be pitch black around us.

“Don’t worry, we’re just going around, it’s faster to get there this way. We’ll still be in Prague.” He reassured me.

In a few minutes at an ungodly speed, thank heaven we didn’t have any car accident, we arrived in a parking lot. My stomach was dancing around, luckily it wasn’t too full, so there wasn’t really much that would want to get out.

“Ladies first.” He showed me to get inside the building first while he was holding the door open for me.

“Thank you,” I answered, still trying hard to keep the contents of my stomach buried inside of it.

“A table for two, please.” He didn’t smile at the waitress, yet when he turned to me, his lips widened again. It made me feel warm inside. Just that little thing, him smiling only at me and not the waitress, made me feel like I was head over heels for him.

“What tea would you like? White, perhaps? It’s good for the evening. Or herbal one? They have those too…” Seeing him so focused on just picking tea from the menu made me drawn to him even more than I was before.

“No need to stare at me. You can see for yourself on the paper.” He lifted his eyes up to meet mine, smiling again. I quickly looked down, feeling the blood rushing to my cheeks. He caught me staring, yet he smiled so sweetly and charmingly, that I almost dropped to the floor having difficulty breathing.

“I’ll take white, then,” I answered, quickly closing the menu and looking around, while I was trying to disperse my embarrassment.

We were sitting opposite of each other, the romantic atmosphere of this place was just breathtaking. The outside walls were made of pure glass, I was seeing the dimly lit garden with a lot of trees, and inside, the dimly lit tables with a candle burning in the middle, made me feel so comfortable yet alert of everything that was going on. It felt like time was slowing down, but I wasn’t bored, on the contrary, I was enjoying being in this place. 

“So, what do you say of their tea? I find this place to be one of the best in this city.” He took another sip of the Earl Grey he had ordered. I was holding the huge tea mug in both of my hands, warming them up.

“Yes, I like it here too. It’s very comfortable being here.” I answered, my clouded look was directed to the liquid in my mug. I heard him gasping. I quickly looked up to see him looking happily surprised. I blinked a few times, not knowing what to make out of this situation.

“So you’re saying you feel comfortable being around me?” My body froze for a moment. Did I just seriously say that? On this kind of a weird first date? There goes my experience of not dating anybody. Thank you, Ansel, for making me an i***t just like this! I wanted to just dig myself into the ground. Me, a girl, who had been studying hard at the university, I was getting good grades… And I say such a stupid thing on the first date with a guy I only met today? Good way to go.

I nodded. There was no way I could deny this. However, his honestly happy smile was making me feel that it wasn’t such a bad decision.

Dantalion

“Master Dantalion, you can’t mean this seriously.” I rolled my eyes up. I knew it wasn’t the best idea to come here, but I needed my plan to proceed smoothly. I had to get that human girl’s trust, the sooner the better. I didn’t say a word. This lesser demon, a servant of my long-time friend, Great King of Hell Purson, had no right or ground to question me. Had I been in a very bad mood, she wouldn’t live to see the next day, let alone a minute.

“I can turn you into a human, but you will not be able to use any of your powers. And once you come back to Hell, you will gain your powers and appearance back.”