Clara woke up slowly and took a moment to recognise the blue ceiling of her hotel room. She was in a different country now. She then noticed that she wasn’t wearing anything and the events of the night before came rushing back to her. She had finally slept with Caiden. Clara blushed at the memories. They had certainly made up for lost time and she had dropped off to sleep very quickly after they had run out of energy to go for another round. It turned out that sex was a good way to fall into a new sleep cycle. She looked around for any sight of Caiden. The demon had been in the bed when she had settled down to sleep. She couldn’t see him anywhere and his clothes weren’t on the floor. He must have gone back to the demon realm. It made sense when she looked at the time. It was now late morning. Clara sat up slowly and became aware that she was feeling sore. She had read about the morning after in books and so far, the books she had read were fairly accurate. It had hurt a little wh
She could tell from the look on Caiden’s face that he had understood her feelings. “You’re right,” he said. “Now that I understand humans a lot more, revenge isn’t going to completely help you get over the problems in your past. I thought it was a good way, but there’s other things that will help you better.” “Hearing Victoria apologise helped a little,” Clara said. “I should have found a therapist and told them my real story a long time ago.” “It’s partially my fault as I was the one to offer you revenge,” Caiden admitted. “I didn’t understand fully human nature at that point as I had only completed a short contract before meeting you.” “We’re stuck with revenge now,” Clara said. “The contract is centred around revenge and we’re both bound to it.” Caiden took her hand with a light touch. “I’m not saying that revenge isn’t right. The people who bullied you to the point of death do deserve revenge. It's just not the thing that will help you resolve your problems related to y
“I’m proud of you,” Laura told her as they walked outside together. “Clara would have loved to hear that you have an art degree and you’re also talented with artistic things.” Clara smiled. “I’m sure she would have loved that.” She knew that Clarissa would have been delighted to have a twin sister who shared the same interests as her. “How long are you staying here?” Laura asked. “A few months,” Clara replied. “Is there any chance you wanted to come visit again when all of the family are here?” Laura questioned hopefully. “You’ve only met me and Ryan today. My husband is still at work and my other child is at an after-school club.” “I’ll consider it,” Clara said slowly. The visit to her foster mother hadn’t been as painful as she expected because she had already come to terms with her past actions. She was less comfortable with spending extra time with them though. Laura’s face lit up and Clara wondered if she would ever meet her again. “Thank you for coming over to
Clara was impressed with how quickly he had come to the correct conclusion. Xavier knew her personality well. “Yes, you’re right. I didn’t meet with you to catch up with you. I do want something from you,” she said. “Am I going to regret anything?” Xavier asked. “It involves Beckah Griffen,” Clara told him. Xavier levelled her with an analytical glance and she stared back at him. “I can punch her in the face if you like,” he said a moment later. “I’m always willing to do that. She would also get me in a lot of legal trouble for it.” Clara was amused by his willingness to punch her biggest bully. She wished he had been willing to do that when they were in high school. “That would be nice, however it’s not what I want. Would you be willing to introduce me to her as your girlfriend?” Xavier paused with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth and stared at her in shock. Clara had been expecting this reaction as she knew the request was very unexpected. “...Why?” was his event
Caiden turned up in the evening looking absolutely exhausted. Clara paused the show she was watching to give him her full attention. “Why are you back so late?” she asked. “Well, I had to follow Beckah around to establish her work schedule. She’s only just gone home,” the demon explained. Clara checked the time. It was now 8 in the evening which was a late time to work to. According to the information in recruitment adverts for Griffen Investments, the working hours were 8:30am to 5:30pm. She wondered if Beckah regularly worked overtime or if this was a special occasion. “What did she do today?” Clara questioned and picked up her notebook to take notes. “Boring things really,” Caiden said. “I’ve never been interested in human businesses and now I’m sure I would be very bored if I worked in an office. Most things she did were related to investment. She did take some calls that sounded personal about renting out warehouses.” Clara connected that up with something Beckah had said w
They walked down the busy city street and headed towards the restaurant where Beckah was intending to eat lunch. Their timing was perfect. They reached the front entrance at the same time that Beckah did. Clara tried not to show a visceral reaction to seeing Beckah in the flesh again. The bully still looked unabashedly confident and perfectly made up as she had in London. Clara was pleased to see the shocked look on her target’s face. “Hello, Beckah,” Xavier said coolly. “Are you eating here?” Beckah’s eyes zeroed in on their joined hands. “Xavier, are you dating Clarissa St. Clair?” she asked in surprise. Xavier held up their hands. “I am.” Clara felt the familiar prickle of Beckah’s gaze. This time Beckah was staring at her with an obvious look of hate. She wasn’t even bothering to hide her hate even with another person present. “You’ve got bad taste. I told you we should have dated in high school. I was the most popular girl after all,” she said and tossed her long blo
Beckah’s face went through a serious of changes. At first, she looked surprised, cold and then her expression was calculating. “I wondered why you felt so familiar,” she said eventually. “You two were twins all along. Your first names are similar as well.” Clara noticed that she hadn’t addressed the accusation of bullying. It felt like it was deliberate. Beckah looked at Xavier and nodded. “It also explains why you managed to snag Xavier,” she added. “He feels a lot of guilt for what happened in high school. He’s only dating you because he helped kill your sister.” Clara took Xavier’s hand before he could do anything. She was sensing that he was very angry at being goaded by Beckah. “Xavier and I have talked about the past situation with my sister and he admitted to being partially responsible. My grandfather has the police report from back then and your name was brought up during investigation. Of course, you and your friends got off any charges,” she said calmly. “Whatev
Clara had a whole series of petty tricks planned for Beckah. She had taken some inspiration from Beckah’s high school bullying tactics to make it feel more satisfying. “Your evil streak is showing,” Caiden said with a smirk. “She shouldn’t have driven me to death,” Clara said with a shrug. The taxi pulled over to the side of the road after the light turned green and Clara was pleased to see Beckah get out with a scowl on her face. “If she runs, she’s got time to get to the investment company,” Clara noted. Beckah was wearing practical shoes so it was possible to run. The US wasn’t as pedestrian friendly as the UK so it wouldn’t be an easy route to run. “No, she gets another taxi,” Caiden said. “I checked the future just now.” Beckah waved her hand frantically at a taxi that was going past and managed to flag it down. “That will be her only good luck today,” Clara vowed and started following behind. The taxi driver had clearly been told to drive fast judging by the wa
“I’m getting married!” Clara announced happily. She smiled over her coffee and Arthur watched her with a bemused look on his face. "When is the wedding?" he asked. “Next month,” Clara told him. “I was planning to invite you. We’ve only just decided on the date so there’s no invitations to give out yet.” “Do you not have wedding planner then?” the hacker questioned. “Invitations are normally sent out much sooner.” “I don’t want a big wedding,” Clara replied. “James was fine with it and just asked that I invite him.” She was a little surprised that her grandfather had agreed with her desire to have a very small wedding. They both enjoyed high positions in society and people like them normally had grand weddings with a long guest list and a high budget. “I shall consider an invite as a great honour then,” Arthur quipped. “How many guests are invited?” “I’m inviting 12 people,” Clara said. “Caiden has invited a couple of friends. He doesn’t have any relations to invite.” “Of cour
Their first month of dating passed by quickly. They soon fell into a routine of meeting after work and going on dates. Clara was blissfully happy, but she knew they needed to discuss their future together. Caiden was only living temporarily in the UK after all. She chose to ask after they had finished eating Caiden’s latest attempt at a home cooked romantic meal. His cooking skills were unique to say the least. “Are you going to stay here in London when your job here is finished?” she asked. “Where would you like to live?” he questioned. “Here or in a different country? We have lots of options.” Clara thought about the matter seriously. She had grown up in the US and had been unexpectedly pulled into a different country. She did prefer living in the UK, but there were other countries to try as well. “We can move around,” Clara said. “I think we should make this our main country and travel to other places. That is if you want to. This is a decision we should make as a couple.” Ca
Clara kept a careful watch on the office building opposite so she wouldn’t miss seeing Caiden leave when his work day had finished. She had already missed seeing him before, she wasn’t going to do it again. Fortunately, he was one of the first people out of the building and Clara immediately began to pack up everything she had brought with her. Caiden entered the coffeeshop and beamed when he saw her waiting by the door. “Excellent. You’re ready to leave on our date,” he said and held his hand out to her. “Can we take a diversion first?” she requested. It was only fair to let Arthur know that she had found Caiden, but she had decided a text wouldn’t suffice and it was better to let them meet in person. “Will it take long?” “I want to introduce you to someone,” she explained. “Arthur has been helping me look for you and I think he would like to see the success of our search.” Caiden looked thoughtful and then he nodded. “I would like to meet him. He has provided assista
When Clara finally looked up from her phone and glanced back at the door, the person she had been waiting for had already left. She had missed a lot in the two minutes her attention had been diverted.A member of staff approached her table with a cup of coffee in her hand. Clara looked around in confusion. “I didn’t order anything,” she said. Clara was aware that she was the strangest customer in the coffeeshop and the staff were probably wondering when she was going to leave. She had been the first customer of the day and had only ordered two drinks in the past three hours. “One of our regulars came in a couple of minutes ago to pick up his online order. He saw you looking tired and bought an expresso for you,” the staff member explained with a smile. “He’s a nice person.” Clara blinked in surprise. She had never noticed any of the customers paying attention to her. The incident must have occurred when she had been occupied with her phone. She checked the name tag on the girl’s
The weeks quickly turned into months and soon an entire year had passed. Clara had taken a position at St. Clair that had enabled her to travel around the world just so she would have better chance of finding Caiden. She returned to the family mansion on the anniversary of her return from the demon realm after an unsuccessful trip to New York. Her actual work had gone well, she just hadn’t found any signs of Caiden in the city. There hadn’t been any traces of Caiden in any of the 10 countries she had travelled to over the past year. He didn’t have any presence on the internet either and Clara didn’t have any idea of how she could improve her search methods. Clara collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes. She was physically and emotionally exhausted from her search. Despite everything, she wasn’t going to give up. She would sleep for a while and then she would look at other highly populated places to visit. “Clara Kennedy.” Clara’s eyes opened immediately at the sound of
Clara landed on the floor of her bedroom alone and fully aware of the gravity of the situation. She didn’t have Caiden at her side anymore. She needed to find him for that to happen. Clara stood up and realised that her legs were shaking. She had been feeling intimidated by the demon king and had refused to let him know. Now her nerves and lack of sleep had got to her. She took a deep breath to calm down. She had vowed that she would be able to find Caiden and she needed to start working on that.One person came to mind immediately. Arthur would be able to help her. She took her phone out of her pocket and called him. “...Hello?” Arthur asked cautiously when he picked up the call. Clara realised he had assumed that the phone call was someone else using her phone to inform him of her death. “It’s me, Clara,” she told him immediately. “Things have changed. Can we meet up? I have a lot to tell you.” “Of course,” he said. “I think we'll need to go somewhere that allows for private c
Caiden was lost for words as he watched the events that he had foreseen so many times play out in front of him. It was no longer a vision of the future; it was happening in reality. It was finally the end of Clara’s life. Her soul floated in front of him as her eyes slowly closed. Caiden made his decision in that moment. He grabbed hold of Clara’s soul with his hands and pushed it back into her. Despite being very light, her soul wouldn’t move until he exerted all of his power. Clara’s eyes snapped open when her soul returned to her. “...What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly. “I can’t take your soul,” Caiden admitted. “I want you to keep it.” He had no real idea what was going to happen now. The contract had not been fulfilled properly. He had completed his part of the contract and he had stopped Clara from fulfilling her part. There was no precedent to follow here. He was the first demon to refuse a soul. “What’s going to happen to both of us?” Clara questioned weakl
Clara knew that her grandfather was confused to hear her sentimental words. They rarely talked about their personal feelings. “I haven’t been the best grandfather,” James replied with a deep frown. “I brought Beryl here to be your mother figure as I had felt that it would prevent you from becoming like my daughter. It turned out to be the worst decision I have ever made.” Clara could not deny that James’ decision to date Beryl and bring her into the family had been lethal for Clarissa. She decided to focus on something else. “Thank you for rescuing me when I was a baby,” she said. “I’m sure Clara would also thank you for looking for her.” “You don’t need to thank me for that,” James replied. “I would also like to thank you for taking me in instead of leaving me to the care system,” Clara continued. She didn’t know much about the British care system, but it was likely similar to the American one she had lived through. She had been lucky to be adopted by a decent set of foster pa
“It was a good ride,” Arthur said with a wink. “You kept me guessing for so many years. I’m so pleased to finally know what was going on the entire time.” Clara relaxed. The hardest part was over now. “Is everything over now?” he asked a moment later. “You’ve brought all of your targets down apart from Xavier King.” “It is,” she confirmed. Arthur nodded and then he looked deep in thought. He coughed awkwardly before speaking again. “Where did Clarissa go if you are in her body?” he questioned. Clara had been expecting this question. Arthur was the only person who had a connection to Clarissa and knew that she was using her body. It would have been odd if he didn’t ask where Clarissa had gone. “...She died when she committed suicide four years ago,” she explained. “Her body was alive for a short time and I was put into it. I’m sorry to tell that she died all that time ago.” Arthur frowned and looked away. “I see... That’s sad,” he said. “It’s odd to hear that Clariss