novelTORAKS DISSAPOINTMENT
| ← Ch.0233 | Ch.0235 → |
"So, the angel is looking for the grimoire of the pure blood witch, together with that witch?" Lucifer was playing a knife in his hand as he looked at Aeon, who was forging a sword.
No matter what era, a bladesmith would always be a bladesmith.
Aeon put his focus on the matter at hand and half ignored the devil, as he kept bothering him ever since he managed to make a connection with Raine again.
Yet, being ignored didn't stop Lucifer to talk."Why do you need this grimoire?"
Aeon didn't answer him again as he forged and bended the hot metal in his hand.
"You know what? If that book is existed in the past, then it will be existed in the present." Lucifer tilted his head to see Aeon's reaction.
A devilish smile curled on his lips when he saw Aeon stopped what he was doing and stared at him, with hostility, yet he asked Lucifer, the devil knew the shadow warrior had fallen into his ruse.
"What do you mean?" Aeon's black eyes narrowed dangerously.
"What?" Lucifer feigned an innocent look as if he was saying that out of a brief idea that crossed his mind and didn't actually mean it.
"Your words from before about the existence of the grimoire." Aeon said.
But, unfortunately Aeon didn't get it.
The smirk on Lucifer's face widened as he explained."Why do you need to look for that grimoire in the past? If it was something valuable, the witch should keep it save right? Or at least, even though she lost it, the grimoire must be existed somewhere." The Devil suggested."So, why don't you look for the grimoire in the present? It will be less dangerous for 'your angel' to be in this realm instead of she has to go back to the past."
Lucifer intentionally emphasized the words of 'your angel', to underline the idea that Raine belonged to Aeon.
As expected, Aeon liked the sound of it, though it was only a slight changed, but his expression softened.
"I think I can help if your angel really needs it." Lucifer's golden eyes shone brightly.
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Raine walked into the second building where her first class would be held with Stephan, who didn't stop talking ever since he picked her up at the entrance gates.
"Don't you know the uproar that you have made?" Stephan asked Raine, bothering her with the same topic though he didn't get the response that he wanted."Fortunately you enter this university where, probably, half of the students' parents had gone to your party, so they won't make an unnecessary fuss."
Stephan was right, regardless almost all the students looked at Raine weirdly, but there was no one from them who actually approached her and made a small talk or tried to be close to her, since she entered the University's gates.
This was actually not as scary as Raine thought and she could still tolerate their curious gazes.
"You are right." Raine admitted, mumbling to herself.
When they turned at the end of the corridor and entered the class, Raine took the last row to sit at the corner.
Her class was like bench in stadium, where the last row would be the higher place than the first one, with their lecturer would be equipped with a big screen to convey their lesson, in the front of the class.
Raine furrowed her brows when he saw Stephan was sitting next to her, so she was trapped between wall and him.
"What are you doing here?" Raine felt uncomfortable.
"Study." Stephan gave Raine a look that saying; 'what else I will do inside a class?'.
"Don't you have class?" Raine asked, as long as she remembered, Stephan took different major from her.
"I did, but your mate put me here." Stephan shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly.
"How he did that?" It was unbelievable.
Stephan raised his eyebrows."You can enter this University without test, all you have to do is; ask him." He said in matter of fact tone."Moreover, I don't really care what major that I take, this kind of activity is useless for me."
Afterward, Stephan put his bag in front of him on the table and used it as pillow when he rested his head on it and closed his eyes.
Raine looked at him in disbelief, then she scanned the class that all the seat was almost occupied.
Raine couldn't find another corner and surround by strangers wasn't a good idea. So, after sometime she thought about the pros and cons, being with Stephan was still the best choice that she had.
With a deep sigh, Raine pulled out her book and waited for the class to begin.
The first class took an hour and half of it was filled with introduction from every students and talked about trivial things to warm up the atmosphere.
Once it Raine turned to introduce herself, the whole class became drop silence, even one could hear the sound of falling needle.
Raine forced herself to talk as loud as she could, but it turned out her voice was only a little bit louder than a whisper.
Nonetheless, no matter if those students could hear her or not, they already knew her enough to know her name even without the introduction. After all, the waves of shocking news and splendid birthday celebration, which Torak was held for Raine, just passed a week ago.
Even Torak and Raine's name were still on the top list of the search engine.
Fortunately for Raine, Mr. Hemsworth didn't ask her to repeat her very quiet introduction and let her to sit as he called another name.
During the class, Stephan was only awake for two times, first when he had to introduce himself and the second was when the ended of the class.
As the first class ended Mr. Hemsworth told them to head to the auditorium where there would be a short speech from the Dean and vice principal.
"Wake up, we need to go to the Auditorium." Raine shook Stephan's shoulder so she could get out from her seat too.
Stephan looked disoriented and yawned widely as he stared at the class that almost empty.
"We have to go to the Auditorium." Raine repeated her words again.
"What? To receive that boring speech from the vice principal and his staff?" Stephan rubbed his face harshly as he stood up.
"From the Dean and the Vice principal." Raine informed him, but he didn't even bother to listen.
"Pass." Stephan raised his hands and opened his palms."I will take a nap inside the library, if you finish, come to find me."
After saying that Stephan left Raine, who was looking at him in bewilderment.
Why she should look for him? Wasn't he assigned to look after her? Thus, why it was him who ordered her around? Moreover Raine was fine with her own.
Raine decided to not look for him after the speech and tried to befriend with another people.
Because the situation in the campus turned out didn't as bad as she thought and those students didn't attack her with questions like what people online did, Raine still has a high chance to have a normal campus life just like how her plan at the first place.
Afterward, without Stephan tagged along, Raine was walking alone to the auditorium, it wasn't hard to find the place as all the freshmen were heading to the same spot.
Raine was still a bit awkward to walk among the crowd, but also excited to see her new life as a college student.
"Raine!!!"
Someone called out her name among the crowd, Raine stopped and looked around to see whose voice belonged to, but it didn't help with hundreds people around.
"Over here!"
She shouted again and this time her voice came from Raine's left side, with curiosity Raine tried to focus at the source of the voice as she watched a girl in blue jacket and mini skirt waved her hand toward her.
Raine immediately recognized her face, she had met with each other before in the mask party, though they met by accident, but Raine didn't have a bad impression toward her.
The girl moved forward and approached Raine with difficulty.
"Do you still remember me? I am Sunny." She said cheerfully."I was the one who had spilled drink on your dress at the mask party." Sunny reminded Raine.
"Yes, I remember." Raine smiled.
Before, Sunny had told her that she was also a college student in Royal University, but this was her second years.
"I am so happy when I saw you among the freshmen." Sunny exaggerated her reaction."I was so thrill when I saw how extravagant your birthday celebration was, I was also one of your guests you know, but I didn't have a chance to congratulate you because you only stayed for a while." She kept going with her story.
Raine liked how energetic Sunny was, but she couldn't listen to her excitement any longer.
"Sunny... I am sorry, but I think I have to go now..." Raine touched Sunny's hand to make her stop talking as she looked around, almost all the new student had gone inside."How about we chat latter?" She offered.
Raine didn't want to be rude to her first friend.
"Of course! How about we exchange number?" Sunny suggested, her expression didn't change a little bit.
"Sure." Raine agreed readily, and with that both of them knew the other numbers and waved a goodbye as they went to different direction.
When Raine entered the auditorium and found a seat, she felt her phone rung, indicating someone sent her a message.
Looking at the screen, Sunny's name popped up along with her text.
[If you are finished and have no class, meet me in university canteen, I will introduce you with all my friends. ((^O^))]
To be introduced to Sunny's friends sounded nice, thus Raine typed her reply. [Okay. ]
The speech lasted for an hour and when it was done, it was already time for lunch.
Thus, with the promise to come to the University's canteen and hungry stomach, Raine walked to the Canteen direction.
She needed to ask two people for direction to the canteen because this was her first time to go there, which the two of them were quite surprised when Raine initiated a conversation. Along the way, Raine was curious about how Stephan knew the library in this University? Or probably he was asking around too.
The canteen was located next to the second building. It was an outdoor place that situated in the east of the park at the university where there were so many food stalls.
Once Raine reached there, she made a call to Sunny to ask about her exact place.
Sunny picked the phone on the second ring.
"Raine, are you already here?" Sunny cheerful voice could be heard.
Raine smiled to her phone when she heard her enthusiasm."Yes, where are you?"
Sunny then told her where she was as she talked, there were a lot of voice near her whose asking; 'Is it Raine?' and 'She will join us?'
Raine didn't need to have a lycan's hearing ability to hear all of those questions, as they were so loud."I got it."
After she knew their location, Raine walked to the place that Sunny had mentioned, it wasn't very far from Raine original spot.
Under a big tree, beside a hotdog stall, there was a picnic bench that could fit for eight people.
"Raine, over here!" Sunny waved her hand as she stood up from her seat.
Raine waved back at her as she walked toward them.
Aside from Sunny, there were two girls and two guys, all of them looked at her at the same time.
Raine gave them a polite smile once she was there, she clutched her hands together so she could stop herself from fidgeting.
"This is Raine!" Sunny stood up abruptly and introduced her in a tone of voice like saying ta- daa!
And then, Sunny went on to introduce the five other people enthusiastically.
Casey, a girl with brown eyes and brown hair that tied up atop of her head into a bun, she was wearing glasses and looked cute with mole on her left cheekbone. She was also quite friendly as she was smiling all the time.
Jamie was sitting across Casey, she was quite eccentric with her white short hair and a few strike of purple color hair on the left side.
Raine couldn't say if she disliked her to be there or it was just her character to ignore people, because she just continued eating while Sunny introduced her and only glanced briefly at Raine.
Beside Casey was Connor. He was an adorable guy with dimples on his cheeks every time he smiled and he smiled a lot, just like Casey.
Later, Sunny whispered at Raine that Casey and Connor was couple.
And the last guy was the one that attracted Raine's curiosity the most.
This man's name was Kai, but Sunny said he preferred to be called Kelly.
Kai or Kelly was wearing an adorable shocking color of pink shirt with his black straight hair that framed his long face. He was applying yellow eyes shadow on his eyelids and putting a light color of orange lipstick on his lips.
But, the shocking part was the way he greeted Raine.
"Hai, Raine." He glanced at Raine through his small round mirror in his hand."But, you are welcome here, but I don't think I like you."
In an instant, Raine's face fell. She did nothing, but there was someone who already hated her.
Connor immediately punched Kai's arms as he made an apologize expression. Sunny also explained immediately to Raine.
"He didn't mean it, Kelly likes man and he is one of Torak Donovan's fans, so he was jealous with you." Sunny said in low voice."He is not a bad man. Just ignored him for the meantime, he is still shock by your relationship announcement."
Raine was speechless, she was even hated by man. Just how big Torak's influence was...
==============
After that lunch with Sunny and her friend, Raine would spend most of her time with them, though Kai still disliked her and didn't talk to her nicely, but he didn't hate her in particular.
Kai always complained about how Raine dressed herself and rumbled on about how filthy rich Torak was, but Raine always used the same bag every day.
Kai always said if he was her, he would have bought all the latest collection of famous brands and would never wear the same clothes twice for the rest of his life.
Raine couldn't argue with his theory and Casey just waved her hand to tell Raine to ignore him.
But, in rare occasion, when Kai knew Torak would pick her up, he would force Raine to meet him first before she went home and all he did was to put a light make up on her face.
"You should learn how to do make up you know!" Kai would chastise Raine while applying a pink lipstick on her lips."Do you think because you are already in relationship with him, he couldn't seek another woman? Don't be so na?ve! If you always meet him with this plain face of yours and your conservative style, don't cry when he looks for someone better. He is still a man you know! Men like to see beautiful things!"
Apart from Kai's infatuation toward Torak, he was a good friend.
Casey and Connor would treat Raine nicely, though Casey and Sunny would flaunt around their social media about how they could befriend with Torak Donovan's girlfriend and incited another ripple of comments from people online, most of the time they were the best friend that Raine could expect.
Meanwhile, Casey would treat Raine like she wasn't there, or probably she treated all the people that way.
It was so rare for her to talk, but once she talk she would make a sharp comment about the topic that could shut all the people there up.
For Stephan, he would always fetch her at the front gates and walked her to the gates when she would go home. In between, Stephan would choose to sleep in the library instead of mingled with Sunny and the others.
Stephan thought as long as Raine wasn't alone and there were thousands pair of eyes around her, she would be all right.
Hence he would slack off of his duty to be with Raine.
Yet, Raine didn't complain as she didn't really like to be tailed by Stephan because she knew, he would report everything that she did to Torak and knowing that, she was slightly uncomfortable.
Regardless, Raine loved her university life.
She could continue her education, which she thought she wouldn't be able to do it, and has a few people that she could call as her friend.
Inside the university area and among her friends, Raine was invisible, those people out there with their hate comments couldn't reach her or hurt her.
Not all the people hate Raine for being with Torak, there were also people who congratulated her, but the comparison was too big and Torak didn't like Raine to read comments in social media.
In a blink of an eye, three weeks passed uneventfully.
But, it didn't last for long.
In one afternoon, when Raine walked on the patio that adjoining the first building and the second building to have lunch with Sunny and the other, someone touched her hand.
Startled, Raine turned around and found a familiar face and figure.
His black eyes, which stared at Raine deeply, and his curly shoulder- length hair, as she could smell his musky scent with their close proximity.
"Aeon?" Raine said his name in disbelief.
"Raine, I miss you." Aeon blurted out that made Raine panic, it wouldn't be good if someone else heard him saying that.
"How can you be here?" Raine asked, looking around as if she was afraid Torak would see Aeon. She did it subconsciously out of habit.
Aeon didn't answer immediately and just fixed his eyes on Raine, she looked beautiful as ever, whether it was in the past or in the present, she looked so enchanting.
"I can help you to find the book that you have been looking for with the witch." Aeon stated.
"Aeon, I think you don't need to bother with that... I am sorry, but I have to go..." Raine tried to pry Aeon's fingers open from her arms. But, he unfazed."Aeon, don't do this..."
Raine started to feel uncomfortable because there were many eyes that look at her and Aeon.
"What is it?" Someone came forward and grabbed Aeon's hand."Let her go." He demanded in deep voice.
Raine whipped her head to her left and found a man as tall as Aeon with bulkier body was standing next to her.
Aeon glared at him as the man also mimicked his fierceness.
"Aeon, let go of me." Raine was so distressed by his stubbornness, she really didn't want to attract more unnecessary attention toward her and here, Aeon made things more difficult for her.
"Torak sure has put all of his dogs around you." Aeon hissed as he switched his anger toward the bulky man.
"Go!" The man snarled.
Raine was surprised by Aeon's words and looked at the man, who came for her rescue, she had never seen this man before.
Because this city wasn't Torak's territory and because her strange condition that couldn't be close with a lot of werewolves and Lycanthropes, thus Torak only brought a few of his own people and, even though Raine didn't know their name one by one, but she recognized their face as she often met them around the main house or when they had to guard her when she was going outside.
However, Raine had never seen him.
"Consider my words." Aeon said before he released Raine's hand and walked away.
Once Aeon had gone, that man turned to check on Raine."Luna, are you all right?"
"You are...?" Raine narrowed her eyes, wasn't sure if he was merely a human guard to protect her or he was also a shape shifter.
"I am Mark, one of the Alpha's subordinate." The bulky man named Mark introduced himself.
"I don't know if Torak put more people here..." Raine mumbled and subconsciously looked around, suddenly she became alert with her surroundings, as if she was being spied."How many people like you here?"
"Luna, you need not worry, we are here to protect you, you can pretend that we are not existed." While saying that Mark walked away from Raine before she could get the number of people that Torak had planted there.
Raine's mood turned sour for the rest of the day after she knew there were Torak's people surrounded her.
She thought it was only Stephan who was assigned to be with her, without her knowing, there were a lot more.
"Just now you know?!" Stephan raised his eyebrows when Raine told him about Torak's people inside the University."Do you really think I can slack off if it is only me who looks after you? Knowing the Alpha, you should know that."
"But, Torak never said anything about that." Raine complained.
Both of them walked to the entrance gates, where a pricey car had been waiting for Raine.
"Yes, but it also means he is not lying." Stephan yawned.
The sun was almost set and the light of it casted their shadow longer as Raine contemplated Stephan's words.
Stephan was right, Torak didn't lie to her, but he just didn't mention it.
Raine knew this was for her protection, but it was a little bit uncomfortable when you didn't know there were always people who had their eyes on you and watched your every moves, but you didn't know who they were or which one were they.
No wondered, recently, she had never seen a single supernatural creature around. Before, at least she would meet one or two.
"But, how those people could enter this University? The one that I met earlier seemed to be in his third years at least." Raine asked Stephan again.
How Torak could put some people in the middle of the semester?
Stephan sighed helplessly as if he was tired to explain this kind of thing to Raine."Oh, please. Until now, you still don't have any idea how powerful your mate is?" He rolled his eyes."Try to make troubles and see how he would clean up your mess." He suggested.
With his absurd advice, Stephan opened the car door for Raine and sent her off with her car driver.
Once she arrived at home, Calleb had been there, waiting for her."The Alpha asks you to meet him in his study room."
Raine frowned when she saw Calleb's expression and his stern voice. This would be something serious.
"Alright." She said and walked toward Torak's study room.
Once she was inside, Torak pulled her into a tight hug and closed the door.
"Torak?" Raine didn't understand what got into him."What happened?"
It was his silence that answered Raine as he kept burying his head on her shoulder.
"What happened? You scare me..." Raine became anxious because of Torak's reaction."Something bad happened?"
"I am sorry if I scare you." Torak released Raine's body and stared at her for awhile before he asked."The shadow warrior approached you today?"
Raine was surprised, but then she remembered about Mark and Torak's people that he had put them there.
"Yes, but..." Before she could explain, Torak had made his own decision.
"Don't go to college until Serefina's condition better and put layers of protection there." Torak said firmly.
"What?" Raine creased her eyebrows in disbelief."Torak... Aeon didn't do any harm on me..."
Until Serefina's condition better? The last time Raine visited the witch, she even had not yet woken up. If she followed Torak's demand, how long it would take until she could get back to college?
"Whether it's intentional or not, he will harm you eventually." Torak stated.
But, Raine was in denial."No, you don't understand... he won't harm me, he had protected me a few times."
And then Raine told her about how Aeon had saved her and him when she traveled back to the past. If it wasn't for him, Raine must have been in danger.
But, Torak was far from glad when he heard that.
"That's why, Torak please... don't hurt him..." Raine pleaded.
"You beg me for another man." Torak's voice filled with disappointment.
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