Abruptly, Clyde felt something . Danger . An enormous sense of danger for…Alice?

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[Talent Main character stuff . Hidden Skill . Tier 1 skill: Foresight . ]

[This skill was forcibly triggered by your soul connection to Alice . ]

In his vision, he saw Alice walking, no, running from a looming dark ma.s.s . Ashes rained from the skies . Then she was in chains, calling his name, apologizing . A blond man carried her on his shoulder into a room of torture devices and dead bodies and screaming women . The vision winked out the moment the man stripped her .

[Warning: this is but a possible future, among many futures; however, if you do not speak with Alice today, this become likely . ]

Clyde silently stood, so deadly composed that the entire room snuffed into silence . He debated for half a second: should he use the summon or check his apartment to see if she was there? The answer was obvious . And so, he invoked the final summon .

Alice appeared to be just fine, Natalia holding onto the demoness's waist as if for dear life . The two stepped out of a ripple of white and grey light, looking right at him . Her eyes fell on the bracelet .

"What's going on?" he asked the demoness . She looked vulnerable for a second then dove into him . "Alice, what's going on? I don't remember ever being psychic until I had a vision of you being carried off to some torture room by a blond man . "

"You won't pry," Natalia said . "It's House Hades's problem—"

"I will pry," Clyde said then pulled Alice back to look into her eyes . "Please . "

"She doesn't want to get you involved with them," Natalia snapped . "You will—"

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At that moment, Clyde's voice literally became a G.o.d's chant . It rattled the room and the skies, shook every nearby object—his eyes s.h.i.+ned too .

"I will get involved!" he snapped . Natalia cowered . His voice switched back to normal, but also calm and collected . "I told you, I don't have visions, ever, especially like that . Never . Not until today . And it's the worse thing I've seen since Mortem . . . " he paused, letting that drop . "I won't stand by while you get hauled off to whatever h.e.l.l that man has planned . Who is he?"

"You probably saw Nezerath," Alice said softly . "The heir to the Ashfall family, our rivals . He's the one my father's trying to make my life mate . My sources told me he was invited to see Father on Sat.u.r.day to finalize things . And since then, his goons have been trying to scare me back to the palace . "

Clyde nodded .

"What are the chances that he'll target my place?"

"He has no idea about you," Alice said quickly . "I never breathed a word, left no hints . "

"It doesn't matter," Natalia said, "you'll be sniffed out eventually . It'd be best to leave the city, live somewhere else . The Ashfall family is just too big . "

"Where will you go?" Harumi said . "I don't like this . "

"Neither do I," Clyde said . "Is there any chance we can convince your father to call it off . "

"You could marry Alice," Natalia said then laughed . Everyone stared at her in silence . "I'm kidding . Our human culture will be meaningless to their life mates . Besides, I can't allow the pervy-monster to marry Alice unless they're soulmates . "

Clyde and Alice stared at each other .

"What now?" Natalia said .

"Nothing," the duo said simultaneously . And they continued, at the same time . "That's ridiculous . Soulmates, like they exis—"

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Clyde's body continued to pulse with a craving for the demoness . He wanted to be honest with himself, but every time he did, the thought of the Viper crept into place . If he won, he'd be sent home, leaving her a widow . He still needed time to decide the risk . A couple of years to get to know her better…no that was the human way . For some reason, he didn't think he could wait .

"Awkward," Akane said in a singsong voice . Sahara simply sighed, glaring at her minion .

"That's master to you," Seth said . "Clare, you've earned yourself a daily customer . You should turn this into a café . "

A huge grin curled across the dark-haired woman's face .

"I'll have that arranged now and opened as soon as tomorrow . Bring your cash . We can talk vampires and killing them or cuddling, whatever . "

Alice gave them both a flat stare before turning back to Clyde, her eyes glistening again .

"I've tried everything to convince my father, but he's insistent on building relations with the Ashfall for some reason . "

The horrible vision of Alice being carried off briefly entered his mind, before fading .

"Is there not anything we can do?" Clyde said .

Natalia smiled, giving the young man an uneasy feeling .

"First, she's going to live with you," she said . "For keeps . Your ambient Stone aura releases something that prevents demon lord minions from finding you . Sure, they'll find Alice eventually, but it should buy us an ample amount of time . They don't know you exist and apparently, Zeth is too dead to tell them . " She chuckled . "The second will be a surprise . Just go on to school tomorrow . "

"A surprise?" Clyde said . "Like we have time for that . What is it?"

"You'll find out," Natalia said, grinning at Alice . Even the demoness frowned .

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Clyde looked at the time .

"Time does fly, but we're still doing our patrol tonight . Toru, mind calling Chika . "

He groaned .

"You know she hates my guts . Let Kitome call her . "

"It's Kitome who hates your guts," Seth said, laughing .

Kitome glared daggers at the both of them . She muttered something under her breath before pulling out her phone .

"Chika, hi," she said after a few seconds of ringing . "Will you be at patrol tonight? Sure . Fine . Okay, see you there . "

Kitome fixed her glare on Clyde .

"Is that so hard?"

"Team lead, you make calls, not me . " He laughed as he dodged Kitome's punch . She almost fell over, but Clyde caught her without tripping nor putting his hands anywhere near her b.r.e.a.s.t.s . As if he'd make a careless mistake like that in front of Alice and she was watching . His blood pulsed .

What was happening to him?

"We've got a couple of hours before patrol," Clyde said . "Who's hungry?"

Alice's eyes lit up . She'd be living with him, somewhat permanently now . There was no way a man could have this kind of luck . He pushed away the thoughts . Luck, eagerness, excitement—now wasn't the time for that . The trope he definitely wanted to prevent was having all the women somehow end up moving in with him, maybe in some big house . It'd be impossible to get privacy . They burst in and stop every attempt—Clyde wasn't going to stand for that .

At the restaurant, Alice and Harumi surrounded him, seeming to compete for his attention . He happily accepted Harumi's clichéd anime b.o.o.b hug and Alice pull him away . The young woman's b.o.o.bs were just . He cleared his throat . A leader must think like a leader . Must be a leader… the jiggle .

Alice glowered at him . He smiled innocently . She just seemed to get cuter and cuter . Clyde took a deep breath then let it out slowly . He needed to compose himself . Whatever the soulmate thing was doing to him—now just wasn't the time . Not until he dealt with the Ashfall family . Even the system agreed .

[Talent: main character stuff . Omen's Sphere detected among Ashfall hands . ]

[Quest: Destroy the Ashfall family . This quest is mandatory and cannot be refused . Reward: unknown . ]

[Warning, this quest is beyond the importance of the main story . All watchers will observe your battles . ]

Ashfall and vampires and watchers . What a mess, the young man thought . Still, the Ashfall family must be a truly f.u.c.ked up lot to make even the universe want them dead . That vision . . . those people . And particular, there was a maid who reached a hand toward…somewhere . Him? Maybe she's the blond man's head maid or something . With a room of death like that, Clyde wouldn't be surprised if he treated all of his staff like s.h.i.+t .

He'd prepare for this quest first before telling Alice . The deadline was Sat.u.r.day, before her idiot father finalized the life mate thing . Alice was his . His soulmate . s.h.i.+t, the possessive thoughts again .

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