Handshake

The girl's face did not change, but Luca can see the grip on the wine glass tightening. She was speechless since she did not expect Luca would say something like that.

"I can help you with that," Luca said while observing Ayana's expression.

Ayana smiled quickly after that and giggled as she looked at Luca.

"I think there is a misunderstanding here. My father died because of suicide. He is a traitor. He deserved it. What do you mean by revenge?" Ayana was calm, she never said her revenge plan to any random people.

Ayana did tell some people to find information about his father's case, but they were people she could trust. They would never tell anyone about this. She never told even a soul that she would take revenge on her father's murderers.

Ayana always proceeded everything carefully. She would never believe that one of her people was betraying her. The thought of one of her trusted aides betraying her causes a sting in Ayana's chest. She believed her aides, but where did he get the information?

Did he just guess it randomly and coincidently get the correct answer? Ayana looked at the man in front of him who was sipping his wine slowly.

Ayana looked down at her glass and tried to remember a single occasion where she blurted out her plan to get revenge on anyone, but there was none. She was positive that no one knew about that.

Ayana raised her head and stumped. The man, who did not utter anything for a while, was looking at her with a strange smile on his face. Ayana felt her chest tightened. His eyes seemed like he could read all her thoughts.

"Is that a joke?" She looked at the man with disbelief. Luca's smile got wider and turned to giggle.

Ayana blinked at the familiar feeling. The same thing happened less than an hour ago. 

The moment Luca took a look at Ayana's confused face, the giggle turned into full bloom laughter. It was like he found the change on Ayana's face was very funny.

Ayana looked at the man with building frustration. She just did not understand what made the man laugh like that. 

Is it something I said? Did he see it on my face? Did I just walk right into the trap? Ayana looked at the man in front of her tiredly. Luca just provoked her with her father's accident as bait and she readily caught it.

Yes. He must have realized something from my reaction and knew the answer. Let's just pretend that I knew nothing about this.

Ayana was calmer than before as she looked at Luca. It seems like drinking the wine really makes her more relaxed.

"It is not funny," Ayana said with a frown, but there was a relief feeling inside her heart.

Luca was laughing while looking at Ayana's expression.

"It is. You look uneasy when I reveal your secret just like that," Luca's words stunned Ayana.

When she thought everything was safely hidden, Luca surprised her again. Ayana looked at Luca dazedly, it seemed like the man really knew how to surprise her, since the day on the west tower, till this moment, it seemed like Ayana was playing in his hand. Luca seemed to know her and knew how she would react to his certain words or actions.

"…" Ayana was speechless for the second time. She was just staring at the man silently. This time she did not want to react at all, although everything was too late now.

"Let's make an agreement," Luca said with a bright smile.

"What kind of agreement?" Ayana sighed. She wanted to end their conversation as soon as possible. This was just too tiring for her. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She was a bit confuse on why the way back seemed longer. 

"I will help you take your revenge, and in return, you need to help me get something that I wanted," Ayana frowned when she heard Luca's words.

Ayana pounded for a minute.

"How could I believe every word you say when I know nothing about you," Ayana said with closed eyes.

"Then let's get to know each other first," Luca said casually.

"What I mean is I need to know your objection. What kind of help do you want?" Ayana said with a tired voice.

"For that, I can't tell you for now, but I have a way to obtain that, so you have to trust me on that," Luca said casually.

Ayana wanted to rebuke, but she was too tired to start another argument. She also realized that she didn't have a lot of options. Another option was also questionable.

"Let's make a contract. I want to make sure you won't harm me in any way before we are reaching our goal," Ayana said as she looked at Luca.

"What kind of contract?" Luca asked.

"A life contract, the one that would kill us the moment we break the contract," Ayana said in a stern voice. She didn't have anything to lose since revenge was the only reason she breathed.

"Deal," Luca said as he stretched his hand to Ayana.

Ayana hesitated her own decision the moment she looked at Luca's fine fingers. For a moment, she felt that everything happened just too fast when she saw how the man accepted everything readily. Although when she thought about the contract, she became calmer. The contract would protect her.

A life contract will keep her safe until both of them can reach their goal. To make the contract, they will need to make a visit to the witches' tower, the place where the richest witches live.

"Deal," Ayana finally took Luca's hand with a firm handshake.

"We need to make an appointment to the witches' tower. If we are lucky, maybe we could book the appointment for maybe next week," Ayana said. She heard that the witches are usually very picky even about their guests. She could ask someone to help her contact the witches and make an appointment.

Ayana was just taking note to contact someone in her mind when she heard Luca's voice.

"Actually, I know the witches. Let's go to their tower tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to see what they can do about our contract." His hand was looking at their hand.

It was at that moment that Ayana realized that their hands were still in a handshake. She quickly pulled her hand, "You knew the witches? I thought witches and vampires are enemies." Ayana tried to get Luca's attention on their conversation.