Alexander could not believe her! He tried to save her from the seed -even though she accused him of mass murder- he sent people to find her and dealt with executives so she could get out of Azul-it was true that he got something out of the ordeal, but it didn’t diminish the hardships he had to go through. He came to visit her – to some extent- and even tried to help her when she was falling. But how did she repay him? By screaming bloody murder! But now she was acting like a nice, docile puppy in front of Liam. He returned to his couch and glared at the couple in front of him with dissatisfaction with his arms crossed, planning on how to get revenge on Liam.

Liam helped Nyla to sit back on the bed and called for a nurse through the intercom. He grabbed a clean towel from a drawer next to the bed and pressed it tightly on Nyla’s wound. Luckily it was a shallow injury. He glanced at Alexander from the corner of his eyes. His behaviour was perplexing. Not only he didn’t leave the room but was observing them intensely. Nyla winced when Liam moved the towel and increased the pressure. He looked at her apologetically. During her panic, she had completely forgotten about her arms and legs and the various tubes that she was connected to and now all the pain of sudden intense physical activity was coming back to her one by one. She nervously glanced at the black-haired intruder and stole her glance as she caught him staring back at her angrily.

* Don’t worry he’s not going to hurt you.

Liam whispered to her gently as he checked her arm. She faintly smiled. Seeing a familiar had reassured her of her safety at the beginning but she was starting to get nervous again. The man in front of her was definitely Gale, the new employee they had hired in the supercenter, but he looked slightly different. His hair was quite dishevelled, and he was not wearing his thick glasses. Nyla thought that he looked better without them but what was he doing here? He seemed to know the intruder. And who was the man standing threatening on one side of the wall looking in their direction? She started to feel dizzy.

* What is…

She started asking Gale what was happening when the door she was trying to open desperately before, opened and interrupted her. A couple of nurses entered the room and gasped at the situation in front of them. One of them turned back to call a doctor while the other one came forward to replace Liam. As he started to turn back, Nyla reached and grabbed a hold of his shirt desperately.

* Gale… don’t leave me.

She said with tears in her eyes. She felt embarrassed. She was acting like a lost child but he was the only familiar face she had seen since god knows when. Liam gently patted her hand as he loosened her grip.

* Not to worry Nyla. I’m not going anywhere. We just need the doctor to check your condition and then we’ll have a nice conversation. I’ll promise to explain everything.

He smiled gently and hesitantly at her. Nyla felt even more confused. This person was different from the shy and clumsy Gale that she knew from Super Center. He seemed more …authoritative. “What the hell is happening?” She asked herself for the hundredth time as the nurse helped her to lie back on her bed.

Liam Went to the couch Alexander was sitting glaring at them with his arms crossed over his chest, feeling slightly guilty. He knew that he had to explain to her about his undercover role in the Super Center, but he didn’t think it would happen so quickly. It was all because of Alexander. He just couldn’t be a little bit nicer during their first encounter.

* Why in the hell did you scare her like that?

Liam scolded him as quietly as possible. He could still feel her gaze following his every move and did not want to frighten her any more than she already was.

* I didn’t do anything!

Alexander yelled at him making Nyla flinch. Seeing her reaction, Alexander fumed once more. Liam stared at him thoughtfully. He was acting stranger than usual. He knew as a matter of fact that Alexander enjoyed people fearing him to some extent. But he seemed almost upset by Nyla’s reaction. This was truly curious. He opened his mouth to ask him when the door opened with a bang.

* WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PEOPLE IN HERE?!

A middle-aged woman in scrubs with her hair in a bun and multiple scars on her face yelled as she entered the room. Dr. Auset Anwar had just come out of surgery when June one of her favourite nurses found her. She quickly explained the situation to her while walking the furious doctor to her new patient’s room. She had told them the room was off-limits until she could assess the girl’s condition. After hearing what had happened to her, she couldn’t help but feel a kinship to her as she had also lost most of her family and friends to demons. She had watched her own brother turning into a seed and killing their entire village. It was a miracle that she had survived but as if one tragedy was not enough, she was imprisoned by the knights of Lux and was almost executed when she was saved by the Anti-Demon Association and assigned to the second division permanently. She had lost many friends and acquiescence throughout the years. The only one she had left was her son Jamal who was taken by that idiotic commander. She glared at Liam who raised his hands as a sign of surrender. Behind him, Alexander glared at her doubling her anger. She was the main doctor of the 2nd division for most of her life and she hated Alexander with all of her being. He was the only one who survived the mission and the one who returned the body pieces of her beloved. And all the hated men on her list were arguing in front of her patient. She could feel the veins in her temples starting to pop. Feeling her anger, Jamal unconsciously stood between her and Liam. His mother was the one who taught him how to fight and she had a tendency to blow out specially when the vein on her started to pulsate like right now as if her head would explode.

* Are you FUCKING SERIOUS?! All of you GET OUT!

To her voice, Liam and Jamal gave in and started leaving the room. Nyla stared at Liam pleading with her eyes to not leave. The new person seemed as scary as the intruder. She couldn’t imagine what she would do to her.

* I will come back in a while Nyla.

Feeling her stare Liam said with an assuring smile and left the room with Jamal. He leaned at the wall outside of the room waiting for Alexander to join them. He looked at Jamal apologetically. who smiled at him understandably and left him alone in his thoughts. This was their first night off together in a long time and it was over before they could do anything special. No wonder Dr. Anwar hated him. Despite her disagreement, he encouraged Jamal to join the 2nd division. He was simply too great of a fighter and Liam hated wasting such talent as a secretary as his mother wanted. The good doctor never said anything until they decided to openly date and her hatred seemed to increase with each day passing. With Alexander and him gone, she probably would be nicer to Nyla. At least that’s what he hoped guilty.

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Alexander didn’t give in as easily. He didn't particularly want to be there any longer – he was too angry at Nyla and slightly embarrassed by the situation—but he had a reputation to uphold and leaving just because he was told to was not part of it. He continued staring down at Dr. Anwar, who was almost as tall as him, in a challenging way. She was one of the few people who stuck around long enough for him to bother with learning their names. She returned his stare with ease. This was not the first time she was dealing with him.

* What?! Are you trying to prove to everyone that you are a pervert by staying and watching a girl change?

She asked him with a sneer. Alexander blushed and noticed the new robe that one of the nurses was holding for Nyla. He turned and went out of the room as quickly as possible so no one would notice his red ears, banging the door behind him and startling Liam.

* What happened?

Liam asked in a worried tone. Alexander had a bad temper and he didn’t go easy on people just because they were women.

* Nothing!

Alexander said with anger. This night was an embarrassment after another.

* What are doing here? Where is your lover?

He asked curiously as he noticed Jamal’s absence. The two always stuck together like glue.

* I need to talk to you…

Liam said with a serious face.

* About what?

He asked feeling annoyed. He wanted to go back to his room and end this awful night.

* The story, and what we are going to do with her.

Liam answered sombrely. Alexander stared at him thoughtfully and nodded. Liam led the way down the hallway towards his office thinking of how he was going to explain to Nyla that her life was over now.

*******************************

Dr. Anwar turned to Nyla triumphantly.

* Finally, the annoying bugs are gone.

She said with a smile walking in big strides to her bedside. She looked both scarier and more beautiful. Nyla felt more relieved. The doctor took out her charts and started reading them while the nurse helped Nyla get into her new robes.

* Stop!

Dr. Anwar stopped her when she caught a glimpse of her back. The nurse dropped the robe lower to allow her access and Nyla felt a gloved hand touching a wound on her back and shuddered unconsciously.

* What sort of unprofessional asshole sewed this wound?! This is completely messed up!

She whispered angrily to the nurse.

* Do you feel any pain when I touch this area?

She asked Nyla gently.

* No, but it does tingle a little bit.

The doctor nodded and walked to face Nyla, holding a flashlight and started checking her various body parts.

* Dr…

Nyla started asking a question noticing that she actually didn’t know the name of the doctor or any of the nurses.

* Anwar, Auset Anwar. And these are June and Pamela. We are the medical team here.

She said while pointing to a blonde girl without a crooked smile with many freckles on her face and a quiet black-haired nurse who had taken care of her wound previously. Nyla smiled at both and noted that while June returned her smile with a big smile of her own, Pamela only nodded to her.

* Anwar where am I? What is this place?! Why am I here? What happened…

She wanted to ask one question but as if a dam was broken the questions in her head started to flow out.

* One at a Time! First of all, this is the base for the 2nd division of the Anti-Demon Association, aka ADA. If you’re not familiar with ADA, we hunt demons and save lives.

She said with a smile and wink and started checking the wound on her arm.

* As for location, we are somewhere in the Radisal mountain range in the west of the Ublos. And you need stitches.

Nyla gasped as she continued her explanation. She didn’t know where Radisal Mountain was, but Ublos was famous since it was one of the few countries that welcomed ADA due to the constant appearance of the demons. And it was in the Trozan continent! She was quite far from Pendle!

* Why am I here?

She asked as Pamela brought a tray with antiseptics and a stitching kit.

* That I don’t know. You should ask the commander about it.

Dr. Anwar said bitterly while putting on new gloves.

* Commander?

Nyla asked curiously.

* You know the asshole with that bland caramel hair.

She said with slight anger in her voice as she snapped the rubber gloves on her wrists.

* You mean Gale?

Nyla said with a smile on her face. Dr. Anwar looked at her surprisingly.

* Yes and no. I don’t know where you got the name Gale, but his name is William Turner and he’s the commander of the 2nd

“And the asshole who’ll guide my son to his death”, she raged inwardly.

* No way! He is Gale, the part-timer we hired at our store a while back and…

Nyla exclaimed in shock and stopped talking slowly as she realized she was lied to for the whole time. If Gale was in fact the commander in ADA, then what was he doing working in her store? Now it made sense why he was so clumsy; he was enormously overqualified for the job!

* He was probably doing some undercover thingies, dear.

June comforted her.

* I see…

Nyla replied forcing herself to smile slightly. Dr. Anwar looked at her curiously. She was good at reading people and the girl in front of her was definitely disappointed. It wasn’t new for the commander to work undercover – he was famous for being awful at it. Not only she had taken notice of him but thought of him as friendly enough to feel disappointed to find out he was not who he was saying. The commander that she knew of was cold-hearted enough to send people to their deaths without batting an eye. That’s how he became a commander at such a young age. Turners were one of the families who were entangled in ADA for centuries and some said they were the ones who established the association itself. They always had some power over the ADA’s vision and decisions and were given the command of the 2nd division generation after generation but over the years their power diminished. By the time of Powel Turner’s command (The current commander’s grandfather and her saviour) the 2nd division was just a joke and existed out of formalities. Until young William inherited the command at the age of 16 after the suspicious death of his grandfather. He quickly gained power after somehow managing to make Alexander and his special unit join the 2nd division. As his success rate in killing demons increased – and with it the death toll of hunters engaged in the battle--some started a rumour that he murdered his grandfather so he could gain the title of the commander sooner. But the girl in front of her thought of him as a friendly face. She wondered that maybe that was how her son thought of the commander too.

* Anwar… My family at the orphanage… we were attacked by a… a de… demon… do you know…

Nyla forced herself to ask the question that she already knew the answer. She had to know for sure. Dr. Anwar looked up from the wound and into the desperate brown eyes looking at her. Behind her June and Pamela exchange sad glances at each other. They didn’t know the details of why Nyla was there. But they knew about how demon attacks went. They all had experience with demon attacks personally as victims and later as soldiers. And they rarely went well.

* I don’t know… you should ask the commander about it.

Dr. Anward decided to leave the hard job of telling the truth to the commander. He could do at least this much to pay her back for taking away her son.