The suspicions

"Why did you do that? I don't trust her at all… We should have taken her hostage….", Oliver grumbled from the passenger seat to Lucas who was driving now.

"Ollie…. She's not going to run away… Trust me on this….", Lucas said, his focus never leaving the road.

"How are you so sure?", Oliver wanted to say that Lucas always had a soft spot when it came to humans but he didn't want to point out his weakness.

"Because it's going to affect her equally if she doesn't give up the pendant. Did you forget?", he asked Oliver for which Oliver didn't answer anything.

"Luke, you do realize that she's not a demon right? Obviously, it's not going to work on her….", Oliver said in frustration. How could Lucas be so dense? She was a mere human and they won't be able to bind her with blood magic. With humans, it was always their soul that counted. 

"You're wrong…. I did some research when you were both resting, back at your place….

", Lucas said and honked continuously at a guy who was trying to cut him through the traffic.

"And?", Oliver prompted him to finish his thought.

"And….. I came to know that it affects humans more. It's not just you who's feeling whatever she feels. It's true both ways. If she doesn't give up on the pendant, every day she spends with it, her life span also reduces by a day, she's going to become very weak soon…. because humans are incapable to handling blood magic….. It'll eat her up from inside…", Lucas spoke driving haphazardly to wade through the traffic.

"Are you sure about this? Then she feels everything I feel too? She's going to know everything about me…", Oliver protested.

"No, she won't… She doesn't have control over her emotions or what to project but you're a demon… So, you can control what you project to her…..", Lucas replied turning only once in his friend's direction to note his expression.

"Ollie…. You are overthinking this… I know Ana and she's not power hungry… Please trust me…. Unless she's able to summon a demon or learn everything about how to harness the power of the pendant, nothing is going to happen… She's not even a mage for crying out loud…", Lucas said as a matter of fact.

"Why didn't you tell her all this? She'd at least be scared for her life and cooperate with us right?", Oliver turned to Lucas in confusion. It'd have been a great chance to instil fear in her and force her to give up on the pendant.

"What if she's not able to remove it?", Lucas stated bringing Oliver's attention to the risk they were facing.

"You think that's possible?", Oliver probed having difficulty believing.

"Yes…. If she's not able to remove forever… Then, we'll have to do something else and at that time, I don't want her to freak out about this… Sometimes, you have to be delicate about these things. Humans care a lot about their mortality, we cannot go around telling people they are slowly dying already…", Lucas said for which Oliver rolled his eyes and turned towards the window.

"I don't know… It's bad enough that we're bonded… It'll be worse if she dies on top of that… Then, I'll have to die with her too….", Oliver mumbled and sighed.

"I'll find a solution out of this mess…."

"Hmm", Oliver said and a silence fell upon them.

"But why were mages trying to kill you suddenly? We've been here for almost a thousand years, right?", Lucas wondered out loud.

"If I had a bond with a demon, I'd be twice stronger", Oliver uttered staring blankly in front of him, "But, if you are bonded with a human, you are… twice weaker?", Lucas finished Oliver's sentence.

Silence again.

"Do you think…. Mages are behind this?", Lucas asked.

"You know very well, they're not…", Oliver replied glancing at Lucas once.

"But…."

"It's him, Luke… Wake up…", Oliver grunted.

Lucas was completely quiet after that concentrating only on driving. Will that person go to the extreme of killing Oliver? Really? But, he won't… Lucas had been wrong before, so was he wrong again in his assumptions?

Oliver was quiet too. He didn't want to say anything further to Lucas but his suspicions were only on one person at that moment. Because if it wasn't for him, then Oliver didn't know who would want him to be dead that bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"When did you get this? It's very cute", Kathy touched the red diamond on Ana's neck while Ana smiled uncertain of what to reply.

"Yes…. I got it recently…", she replied.

"Can I try?", Kathy asked eyes fully sparkling.

"Um… It's actually a strong talisman to ward off evils… So, I shouldn't let others wear it.. I'm not wearing it for fashion…", Ana blabbed something so that she could save Kathy from an electric shock.

"When did you become all religious?", her friend rolled her eyes but dropped the topic.

"And by the way, this top is also looking cute…. Did you give yourself a makeover?", Kathy asked reminding Ana that she totally forgot to change after coming back home and she was still wearing the yellow lace top which Lucas gave her. Of course, Ana wouldn't be able to accept that.

"Yes… I just picked it up on the way…. Thought of trying something new….", Ana said trying to fool her friend.

"Oh! Speaking of trying new things... Should we go clubbing today? I can be your wingwoman…..", Kathy suggested proudly, her entire focus on bringing Ana out of whatever sad and depressed thing she was thinking about.

Ana contemplated about every crazy thing since morning. She was in a way feeling glad that Kathy came to give her company. Overthinking about her issues were not going to solve it. It was better to let it go and be cool.

"Yeah, sure.. Why not?", she said.

Suddenly all the worst things that happened till now flashed in front of her eyes. Her important relationship had failed, she finally thought she was done with her overbearing boss but she was now struck with him for who knows how long, she was wearing a necklace which god knows what she couldn't remove, she was stuck with two demons until they solve all this crap and hopefully let her live at the end….. So, why not? Seriously, clubbing, drinking to the level of passing out and dancing until her feet hurt sounded so much fun to Ana.

"Yaaay! Then, I'll go home and get ready… Let's meet there directly….", Kathy beamed like a small kid.

"Or you can wear something mine….", Ana suggested for which Kathy shot a 'Really?' Look at her. Kathy hated Ana's wardrobe and suggested multiple times that they do a complete makeover of her life which Ana politely refused.

"Fine… Go home and wear whatever…. Let's meet there at 8", she told and collected the empty glasses from the coffee table to drop them onto the sink.

"Cool… I'll be ready then… You'll pick me up?', Kathy asked puppy eyed to Ana like she was her boyfriend.

"Sure….", she said grudgingly but secretly loved Kathy for being there for her all the time.