Chapter 9

Wednesday was here sooner than I wanted. My nights had been more interrupted than usual. After seeing the glowing girl she was all I could see when I closed my eyes and after searching glowing and sex into Google I was even more unsettled. The first search had turned up nothing just articles about the magic of the post-sex glow; somehow I didn't think that was what I was searching for. But then on impulse I typed in demons and sex, I have no idea why I did it; it just seemed to jump out at me. That was when the results came back and there it was in black and white font, page after page of listings, succubus. I didn't even really know what they were until then but as I was reading it I felt bile rise in my throat. Prolonged exposure could lead to death. I stared at the screen for a moment more before closing window and disconnecting the computer. I was truly going stark raving mad if I believed in demons and such, next I would be saying that I saw an angel.

Rolling my eyes at myself, I tried to push open the door to the office but found it much more difficult than when I was leaving the other day. I sighed almost giving up in defeat when a guy stopped next to me, he had the whole bad boy look down and looked like an even worse player than my boss and that was saying something.

"Need a hand?" He questioned with amusement as he watched me struggle to grasp the door handle around the sides of the box. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Would love a hand, can you open the door for me?" I questioned as I fruitlessly attempted to grasp the handle only the box to lurch forwards. With a squeak I wrapped my hands around the box taking a few deep breathes to calm myself. It had taken me an age and then some to organise all of these files and there was no way that I wanted to go through them again. The guy stood there for a moment just watching and analysing me before he took a step towards me and when he was barely an inch away from me so that I could feel his hot breath on the side of his face and smell the strong clean scent of his aftershave, he leant forwards and pushed open the door.

"There you go; I'm Levi, Levi Parker." I nodded my head like I knew who he was but in reality it was just a name that I would probably forget in five minutes time. He stared at me for a moment more before grinning at me in a way that made me do...I don't know what but it made me feel strange and not in a good way. "I hope I'll be seeing a lot more of you Miss Holmes." I froze and turned to watch his hastily retreating back. How did he know my name? I thought dumbly before turning around on auto-pilot and entering Lucius' office. Almost instantly I had a flashback of the blonde grinding against him as I noticed him sitting in his leather chair. He looked up as I entered and waved me in.

Taking a step backwards, I used my butt to close the door before doing all twelve steps towards his desk and dumped the box in the spare seat. Lucius carried on with what he was doing for a few minutes before he actually looked up and met my eyes. I smiled grimly not liking how he was going to react, especially when I tell him about the contents of the box.

"Welcome back, Miss Holmes." He spoke smoothly as he laid his pen down on his desk and then leant back in his chair and dropped his hands on the desk. I nodded in response watching him for his sudden outburst about catching him with the blonde goddess but there was none he just stared at me. "Did you do as tasked?" he questioned nodding towards the box. Startled I stepped forwards and ran a hand along the edge of the box.

"Yes, it was worse than I originally thought. Whoever is screwing you over is doing it royally. It's ridiculous that this hasn't been caught sooner, by the looks of it, it has been going on for nearly two years." Looking down at the box, I ripped off the tape that I had thoughtfully applied to try and make sure the contents stayed in the box, I then pulled open the lid. With a gasp I stared into the box with shock. It just wasn't possible. Slowly I dipped my hands into the box and scooped up the ashy remains of paper, a few scraps remained intact but most of it had been reduced to blackened flakes or grey ash. Scooping a large handful I lifted it up and then let the pieces filter through my fingers. "This is not possible." I muttered as I turned my head to look at my boss.

For the first time in the short time that I had known him, he actually looked kind of worried. "Did you open this box for anyone before you got here?" he questioned eying my hands that were now dusted in a light layer of ash. It was bizarre because all of the papers were burnt beyond recognition but the box itself was untouched. I frowned before returning my gaze to Lucius.

"No, I taped it because of the other day; I didn't want to risk spilling it everywhere after I spent all that time putting them in order." I let out a breath of air whilst my clean hand pinched the bridge of my nose in exasperation. "This is just getting too weird." I muttered before replacing the lid on the box. "Because the files are gone I'll just give you a summary. Someone is filtering off money from nearly every level of the company. The only one untouched is the executives but considering that the execs are you and Mr Watson it is understandable why." I clapped my hands together a few times to get rid of the dust and then glanced back at my boss who looked deep in thought.

"Thank you Savannah." He murmured, his gaze kind of glazed over. He looked like he was completely off in his own world. With a sigh I walked away from his desk towards the door, thinking that he was pretty much oblivious to his surroundings but as soon as I grasped the door handle I heard his voice. "Can you make sure the meeting room is prepped ready for a meeting at two? There are important execs from our rivals coming over so it would be best if the room was in tip top condition." Was that secret code for make sure you polish every surface and make sure the place is immaculate?

"Sure thing," I replied sending a glance over my shoulder at my boss before pulling open the door out into the corridor. I was unsure what to start with for a moment because there were a stack of papers on my desk for me to sort through. I sighed before grabbing the unopened post and then heading down to the meeting rooms.

 It was bizarre being back here. The place looked completely ordinary in the light of day. There was nothing to link it to the traumatic events that happened that night, not even a light stain on the carpet. If anything I would say the place was too clean, like they had done a major clean up job in here, there was that new sterile smell that seemed to be radiating from everything. Do I need to be worried that they have done a grand scale refurbishment on the place?

 The images of those people on the news flashed before my eyes and then I remembered their unseeing eyes staring back at me as they fell to the floor where they were engulfed in the red fog. I shook my head. No I'm just getting paranoid, I thought as I strode towards the door of the meeting room and swung it wide open so that I could get a look at the place. It was surprisingly clean, not even a scrap of paper had been discarded in there and it too smelt like it was full of new things. All of this newness and cleanliness was starting to bug me, it was like they tried too hard to cover it up, whatever it was. Because there was no way my dream was real, right? No, there are no such things as demons, those people were loons that attacked us were loons, they did not get killed here and then mysteriously die in a car accident nearly a week later. No it was all a big misunderstanding. Now if only I could believe that, then I would be able to live a blissful and completely oblivious life.

In the time between then and the meeting, I set up notepads and pens, I arranged for food and drinks to be brought up, and I personally made sure that Kirsten would send everyone up here when the meeting started. In the meantime I sat at the desk outside the meeting room like Lucius had called to tell me I should, and ate my lunch that I had made myself. The room quickly filled with the smell of bacon as I popped open the lid of my lunchbox. BLT sandwiches were a great idea on my part. The smell of tuna probably wouldn't have been a great impression on the rival executives, they might think we did it on purpose; sometimes they take the smallest details personally.

The sound of the elevator doors opening and that annoying elevator voice alerted to me to eh first arrivals. I glanced at my phone which was lying on the desk and saw it was 1.55. Cussing I quickly sealed up the rest of my sandwich and deposited it in the desk drawer as the first arrivals came into view. Grabbing my bag from the floor, I quickly searched through until I found the bottle of hand sanitizer and quickly cleaned my hands with it before pushing myself up from the seat and dusting myself off.

As the first few people arrived I quickly brushed rearranged my skirt and then put on a bright smile as I approach them. It was beyond bizarre because before I was even a metre away, all the nerves that I had been feeling melted away and I felt strangely content but I could find no reason for it. Ignoring the thought I held my hand out to the men. The one who looked like the boss of them all because he was standing at the front and was the eldest, grasped my hand and shook it gently as if afraid to break me. I felt calm and serene emotions roll over me every second that I felt his touch but I just smiled and pulled my hand back when I felt it was necessary.

"Hi, I'm Savannah Holmes; Mr Satani will be along soon. Would you like a drink before you go in or would you like me to show you straight to your seats?" I asked trying to be all professional as I shook each of their hands, only to be overwhelmed by the serenity I felt. Who knew there was such a thing as being too serene? The men smiled at me and nodded and I stood there confused for a moment trying to figure out what they were nodding about, whether it was yes to both or just one of them. I was saved from this dilemma however by my boss walking up to the group with someone I knew all too well. Mr Watson smiled at me in a fatherly way before turning his attention to the men next to me.

"Gabriel, Ezekiel and who is this young lad?" He nodded to the third businessman who looked about the same age as me. He exuded the same serenity as his colleagues but it was not as overwhelming. The one who had dark hair, and who I'm guessing is Gabriel patted the younger man on the shoulder.

"This here is Uriel." He stated in a voice that was even more seductive than Lucius' but not in the obvious way. It was seductive in that is was comforting and felt like home. It was weird though because it didn't really seem to portray much emotion, he was almost perfection but there was no trace of any kind of emotions anywhere about his person. Even now as I looked at his suit, it was beautiful in the way it was cut and how it fitted his body but at the same time it was bland. I shook my head at the contradiction.

"Ladies and gents, can you all move through into the meeting room." Lucius' voice left no room for arguing as he cut through the little introductory session and he sent looks to the rivals that suggested he wanted him to do what he said and keep quiet about something. I got the hint though; he didn't want to discuss whatever business they had whilst I could hear him. I nodded to myself before leading the way over to the empty meeting room. Several of the suits looked at me with blatant curiosity as they passed but one thing I noticed from  all of them, was that they looked at me as if I wasn't one of them, and that was coming from some of the staff of Satani media too. I tried to push away that feeling but it was then that I heard that word again.

"So she's the protected one?" A blonde woman whispered conspiratorially to her colleague whilst the two of them darted looks at me. I straightened my shoulders trying to look confident but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder over that. Protected one? Is that supposed to mean something?

The blonde's colleague snorted and hid a smile behind her hand. "I know what you mean, I was not expecting that." I didn't like the way they emphasised that in reference to me. I sent them a less than friendly glass before retreating back to the desk. Lucius paused by the doorway and looked at me for a moment as if considering something. I just smiled and waved him in.

"The tea and snacks will be up in an hour, I hope that's okay with you?" I posed it like a question but there was nothing he or I could do about it, the refreshments were to be here at 3pm sharp or those people down in catering were going to get an ass whooping. Lucius nodded before retreating into the full meeting room that was strangely silent.

It wasn't until the door was closed that I truly thought about those people. They must have some sort of God complex or something, seriously, who hires their staff so that all of their executives are named after angels. They must really think highly of themselves. Shaking my head in disdain, I started up my computer and got on happily with my work, only four more hours until home time.

Okay, new part up as promised. it's not the best but the rivals are here. The next chapter should be interesting...hopefully. I know savannah is acting a bit dim at the moment, ignoring all the obvious signs but I'm sure if it happened for real a lot of us would be in denial. Any who. Hope you like it. The next chapter will hopefully be better.