It didn't take Zane and Lucus too long to return back to London, though travelling from one dimension to the other was indeed difficult. The two men found themselves landing at the top of the Elizabeth Tower, also known as the famous Big Ben. They took their time to enjoy the magnificent night view of the town upon such a great height.
"Hey, how long has it been since we've looked down at the city like this? Feels so relaxing, eh?" Lucus beamed.
"Totally, mate. But I do wonder how longer we'll get to be like this..." Zane lowered his head gloomily.
Noticing that Zane was still stressed, Lucus put his arm around Zane's shoulder and pulled him closer playfully.
"Don't sulk like this, Zane. We're still here, aren't we? I'm pretty sure neither of us would let history repeat itself." Lucus have Zane a sanguine and optimistic smile.
Zane let out a slight chuckle and tried to shrug his worries off.
After enjoying the aesthetic atmosphere for about 20 minutes or so, the two Angels flew past the buildings with a speed no man could witness in the dark of night.
The Adriel estate was well lit up that particular night, possibly because Zane's servants desperately waited for their master's arrival. As Zane and Lucus entered the mansion, a group of solemn servants. Disoriented, the two exchanged glances before asking them what was the matter exactly.
"My lord, the Kestrel butler informed us a while ago that Sir Jonas Kestrel was murdered recently..." Peter informed Zane in a bleak tone.
"What?! How could that happen?! Mr Kestrel was a righteous man-" Zane exclaimed, panicking.
"Astrid isn't hurt, right? Did anyone else get hurt?" Lucus added, trying to remain calm.
"Fortunately not, sir. Though I'm quite sure Miss Astrid is not in a good state at the moment." Luna replied.
"Doesn't the Kestrel family have the best security possible? How did it come to this?!" Zane continued, nervousness hitting him minute by minute.
"We still don't know, Lord. Everything happened in just a haste they couldn't do anything, or so they told us." Peter explained.
"I'll find out more about this myself. But right now, I need to be with Astrid. God knows what condition she must be in..." Lucus declared, grabbing his coat quickly.
"I'll accompany you, Lucus. And don't worry, you know Astrid's ready strong." Zane assured, smiling lightly.
The two hopped into Zane's car and sped through the road, restlessly. Luckily the traffic was not as heavy as it usually would be, and therefore it was probably not going to take them too long to get to Astrid's.
A nervous silence surrounded them as the tension grew and grew. Both their hearts thumped louder ever before. Neither of them were present beside Astrid's at such a crucial moment. This made them feel tremendously guilty.
"Astrid just lost her dear father, her closest companion, her only family...what must she be going through? I hope she doesn't end up doing something irrational." Lucus broke the silence as he stared at his twidling thumbs.
"That's why we need to get to her as fast as possible. I'm already full of guilt for not being there for her." Zane gritted his teeth as his grip of the steering tightened.
"Gosh, this is absolutely horrible..." The two mumbled to themselves.
Just as they arrived bright blue and red colours illuminated throughout the estate, determining that the police were already there. Multiple professionally dressed Englishmen run around here and there worriedly, yelling at each other. This sudden annihilation left them all unorganized and bewildered.
They tried to approach Zane and Lucus for inquiries, only to simply get ignored by them as they bolted up the stairs to Astrid's room without further ado.
Zane slowly opened the door to find Astrid, who had her legs hugged close to her chest and back pressed against the wall. They could already tell she wasn't in a stable state. Her hair was frizzy, and was strangely pale due to the freezing temperature of the room.
Lucus rushed to Astrid, before Zane could. He didn't hesitate to hold Astrid in his arms, letting her know that he was there. That was when Astrid realised her friends came for her, and she could feel more relieved. Astrid buried her face into Lucus' shoulder, and screamed her heart out. Her angsty screams echoed through the entire hall, almost shaking the very ground.
Shimmering beads of liquid dropped from her eyes without her permission.
Neither of the three dared to utter a single word; even so, they seemed to understand each other quite precisely.
In a distance, Zane observed those two attentively, not intervening in between. He couldn't speak to Astrid now- or he might end up being a sobbing mess himself. Zane was the type who couldn't control his emotions, and that was one of his most weakest points.
Even now, his emotions were to easily overtake his mentality. Therefore, he was desperate for vengeance; vengeance for the innocent. If Demons were involved in these, something had to be done- be it battle, or anything such.
The unclean must be erased.
══ஓ๑⊶❈⊷๑ஓ══
About a week later or so, Alexandra returned back to the human realm all alone. She sincerely guided every Demon guard in Hell to always remain alert and stay at their best shape. They couldn't afford unprepared Demons during such difficult times. Though, she wasn't to worried about their. Each and every Demon was trained to fight at a very young age; and with Noah, a professional war Demon leading them, she didn't have anything to worry about for now.
The Allura mansion was well prepared for their owner's arrival. The garden were beautifully taken care of, and the mansion itself surprisingly intact. Thankfully, her servants hadn't blown up the entire house.
That afternoon, Alexandra was brushing her shoulder length hair and getting ready for the day. Meanwhile, Erin was ironing her clothes in the background. Erin's rhythmic humming echoed through the room, livening the atmosphere slightly. Alexandra was quite relieved to see her servants enjoying themselves, even with someone as impassive and inscrutable as her for a master. It was a wonder how they managed to live with her up till now.
"Pardon me miss, if you do not me asking, have you heard about the recent murder occurrence last week?" Erin asked while she folded the ironed clothes neatly.
"I'm afraid not. Is it someone I should know about?" Alexandra let out a sigh, showing no empathy whatsoever.
Erin wasn't expecting such an indifferent answer; but then again, it was Alexandra they were talking about. Alexandra continued to tie her hair into a ponytail, when she halted.
"It was Miss Astrid Kestrel's father, I presume. It came on the news this morning two. It seems that murder was quite brutal." Erin reported, her voice calm and polite.
Alexandra flipped around to face Erin, perplexed- even though she was poker faced.
"By Astrid Kestrel, are you speaking of the lady who came here uninvited previously?"
"Well yes, my mistress. Rumour has it that he was her only family left." Erin's face softened.
"Ah, I see. That's quite unfortunate, indeed." Even while saying that, Alexandra didn't seem to have any apathy.
She resumed with her business, not caring about what she just heard. Unless the king ordered her to take action, there was no way she was going to break a sweat about it. It didn't matter if it involved someone she knew.
Being too attached to someone would always bring you misery.
All of a sudden, Alexandra's phone began to rang. Ironically, it was Zane Adriel. Alexandra groaned lazily as she forced herself to answer.
"Yes, Allura residence?"
"Yeah hi, Alexandra? Sorry to disturb, but are you busy right now?"
"My daily schedule consists of multiple important events, but now that you took the trouble to call, please do continue."
Zane could feel Alexandra's words filling with disinterest just by listening to her. He let out a scoff and tried his best to not lose control.
"Uh, I'm guessing you've heard about the recent murder of Jonas Kestrel?"
"Indeed, I learnt about it just today. My deepest condolences to Miss Astrid."
Again, Zane totally understood Alexandra wasn't genuinely sympathetic for her. Only because he meant business, he chose to shrug it off.
"So you know. I might have to tell you something about it, since you're quite experienced in this background."
"Oh? I'm all ears."
"N-not over the phone, you fool! Let's meet in private."
Alexandra's silence for a minute made Zane immediately realise that he shouldn't have called her that. It was probably going to take him a while to persuade her now.
"Uh, I apologize for that, please accept my apology."
"What could be so important that you are not willing tell me now?"
Alexandra's straight-forwarded attitude triggered Zane quite to an extent.
"Please, it's important. It's for my best friend. I'll pay you, if you'd like. Just give me a few moments of your time, will you?!"
Zane was tremendously persistent, and Alexandra wasn't the one who could argue with anyone. She believed that energy should not be wasted on such meaningless events.
"Very well, Mr Adriel. I shall try to clear my schedule for tomorrow. No need to pay me though, my financial state is quite stable."
"Perfect! How about we meet near the Big Ben? I'll text you the timing!"
"Alright, please do then. Good day."
Alexandra sighed and immediately hung up before he could say anything else. She sighed once again and stepped out of her room. As she did so, her foot came in contact with some liquid and she slipped.
Even though she didn't scream, she was shook out of her wits. She fell hard on her rear end, which was absolutely unexpected.
"Mistress, I have some documents about the estate to show yo-"
Denis came running towards Alexandra's room only to find her in front of it, sitting on the floor in bewilderment.
"Uh, milady, why are you on the floor?" Denis asked, genuinely confused by the scene in front of him.
"Well you see, the floor was feeling quite lonely. Therefore, I thought, why not give it some company?" Alexandra's tone laced with sarcasm, though her face showed no emotions of sort.
"Pardon my rude behaviour, mistress. But I seriously cannot tell if you're actually being serious or not, with that perfectly straight face of yours." Denis laughed nervously.
Alexandra shook her head in annoyance, and tried to stand up on her own. As she did so, the gooey transparent liquid made her fall once again. Denis tried to catch her before that, but ended up trying to stop his giggling.
"What is the matter here-goodness me! What on Earth happened, mistress?!" Edith exclaimed, cupping her cheeks in disbelief.
Edith rushed to help Alexandra get up, and her feet got stuck in the gooey substance as well.
"Ew, what is this?!" Edith squinted, swaying her foot sideways to get rid of the substance.
"Aren't I supposed to ask you that, Edith?" Alexandra raised an eyebrow at her.
Denis bent down to examine the liquid, while Erin and Edith helped Alexandra move away from the area.
"Mistress, isn't this your favourite coat from Burberry? Isn't it expensive?" Erin frowned, scanning Alexandra's long, black coat, which was now covered in sticky, gooey liquid.
"It can't be helped. Just clean this mess before anyone else gets hurt. And Erin, please get me a new pair of clothes immediately."
Alexandra walked past them all and up to her dressing room, followed by Erin.
"Well? What is this disgusting goo in front of mistress's room?! This is absolutely outrageous!" Edith fumed at Denis, hands on her hips.
"Don't ask me! I'm as clueless as you are!" Denis said defensively.
Denis and Edith goggled at each other confusingly, right as Liam, Allura mansion's cook, interrupted them.
"What's up, y'all? Great weather, eh?" Liam grinned with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
Denis and Edith glared at him furiously, realising who might've been the culprit.
"Care to explain this, Liam?" Denis narrowed his eyes, pointing at the liquid mess on the floor.
"Oh this? I may have spilled some furniture glue while I was carrying a bucket of it to the attic..."
"A-and?" Edith interrupted, her voice shaky with the answer.
"And I supposedly forgot to clean it up, hehe..." Liam laughed nervously like a fool.
"Furniture glue?! Oh my Lord, mistress!" Denis and Edith shrieked as they bolted towards the dressing room in panic.