4:59pm. He should be here any second now. That is if he is punctual by nature. Honestly, though, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes me wait an extra hour or so too. After all, from the two of us, he knows I am the more desperate one to meet him and looking at him from afar just doesn't make me peg him as a punctual guy.

Safe to say I was shocked indeed when he walked in exactly at 5pm.

I raise my eyebrow at him as he came and stood right in front of me.
"What's with the look?" Mason asked.

"You came on time," I questioned more than stated.

"It pleases me to know that you have such a low opinion of me," he said with a bow.

"Oh, you have no idea how low an opinion I have of you."

He chuckled and led me to a nearby bench.

"What about that date you had with Kristine?" I asked him as I sat besides him.

"Cancelled it," he said with a shrug as if he couldn't care less.

"You need to stop leading her on, Mason," I told him with a glare.

"Can you stop trying to avoid the topic we are meeting her for?" He asked with a deadpanned stare as he turned towards me.

"Fine," I huffed in annoyance and crossed my hands.

With an amused expression on his face he said, "Well I think before we go into the details, proper introductions are necessary."

"I don't know what you are talking about," I said stubbornly.

"This is going to be much more difficult than I thought," I heard him say with a sigh.
"Fine. I'll go first."

He then extended his arm for me to shake and said, "Alec Henderson."

I looked at him bewildered. Of course his name wasn't Mason Parker. I changed my name too, didn't I?

"Isabella Crawford," I said with a frown and shook his hand. "But you already knew that."

"Obviously. I came to this god awful city for you."

"For me?" I asked scrunching my eyebrows.

"I'm looking for Crucifer's Journal and I know that your father has it. I also know that demons have been chasing you for a decade now but you honestly have no clue about its whereabouts. Despite all of that though, you are the only person who can help me find it."

"Why do you want the journal?"

"That's none of your business," he snapped at me.

"No need to be so touchy," I said with narrowed eyes. "And its a valid question, considering you want my help in searching for the most dangerous book ever known to mankind."

"You don't really have an option here, Isabella," he said.
Weird. My real name sounds much better from his mouth than when he called me Katherine.

"If you don't decide to corporate, I'll simply share your location with the Underworld. They would be thrilled to know where you are," he continued.

"Blackmail wont work with me, Alec," I sneered. "My mom and I would rather give our lives than let that book get in the wrong hands. Besides, like you mentioned before, we don't know where Charles or that book is."

I got up from the bench, ready to leave, "If you called me here to give me an ultimatum, you've failed. Tell whoever the hell you want. We'll fight them," I said and turned to leave.

"Wait," he said as I felt his hand enclose around my wrist.
"I'm sorry if I got defensive a while back," he said with a sigh.
I turned to look at him and he let go off my hand.

"How about this? You help me find the book, and if we do, it'll ultimately be your decision whether to give it to me or not. You can make your opinion about me over time and decide to trust me or not. Who knows, maybe someday, I'll tell you what do I need it for."

"And what do I get out of this?"

"Closure," he said immediately with a shrug, as if he expected me to ask him this from before. "There are high chances of finding your father along the way too and I am sure you have a lot of questions for him."

Now that wasn't incorrect. I do want to meet him. I do have a lot of questions for him.

"I'm still doing alright without this so called 'closure', though." Even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice and I am sure that Alec picked up on it too because he then said, "Who are you trying to convince, Isabella? Me or yourself?"

There was a silence for a while after which he said, "Besides, don't you finally want to live without having to constantly look behind your back? If we do find the journal, either I will use it for myself or you will choose to destroy it obviously. Since the potion is mostly a one off, once someone uses it no one else can. And well if you don't give it to me and destroy it instead......Basically, you can live the life you have always wanted. You can be free."

He then took one more step closer to me and whispered, "Imagine, Isabella, that map in the wrong hands is capable of bringing worldwide doom. You can do something to prevent that."

"But how can you be so sure that I can help you in the first place?" I looked him in his eyes and asked.

"Because you are his daughter," he said softly, referring to Charles. "If anyone can trace his steps, its his own blood. Its you."

I turned around, wanting some space to process all this information.

"And I mean, not that it matters, but the prophecy mentioned you," he said, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

"EXCUSE ME?! There is a prophecy about me?!" I turned and yelled in shock from this new information.

"Blah," he said and moved his hand as if it didn't matter. "I personally think that the prophecy spews crap. Considering all the research I have done, she always manages to twist and turn everything she says and-"

"Why didn't you start with that, you dimwit?" I said and hit him on the head.

"Hey, hey, hey," he grumbled and swatted my hand away. "Hands to yourself. And NOT THE HAIR."
God, he's such a baby. Ugh.

"So, what does the prophecy say?" I asked excited. I had never seen one. Only heard of them.

"How the hell would I know?"

"What the-? Then how do you know its about me?!" I shouted, thoroughly confused.

"Because the prophecy lady told me!" Alec yelled back.

"What prophecy lady?!"

"She's someone I have known all my life!"

"Why are you yelling?!" I asked him.

"Because you are yelling!" he shouted back, annoyed.

"Okay now stop yelling!" I said, my voice still high.

"Yeah sure!" he shouted.

"This conversation is so stupid," I sighed and said as I slapped my hand over my forehead.

"You're telling me? I am talking to you," he retorted.

"Look, Alec, if you want me to help you then you need to be more clear in the stuff you say and we need to not yell."

"Okay fine," he said. "I went to Lola, the 'prophecy lady', with my problem and told her it was imperative for me to find Crucifer's Journal and then ultimately, the potion. She told me that years ago, her grandmother had told her about this prophecy in which the line 'the child of the devil who stole the treasure' was mentioned. Now her grandmother was pretty sure it was Crucifer's Journal the prophecy had mentioned so obviously the 'devil' is your father and you are 'the child'. The ancestor who knew the whole prophecy was killed so the only line from it Lola is now aware of is the one I just told you.

Besides, you are the only person who can go and ask for the complete prophecy since it mentions you. So right now....you are my only lead."

"This is all too much information, Alec."

"I understand but whatever we are doing we need to do quickly, Isabella. If the Armageddon Vampires already found you, and now that the werewolves know where you are too....it wont be long before the dangerous ones find you too."

"How do you even know all of this about me?" I asked him skeptically. "Have you been stalking me?'

"I won't call it stalking. It's more like thorough research," he said with a grin.
"So, are you in Ms. Crawford?"

I knew I was in trouble even before I gave him the answer. "I'm in."