Chapter 1: A Big Mistake

"A job placement?"

"Only for one night but does offer a large sum of cash"

"You think you can get me in?"

"Sure, Mr London was looking for extras anyway. Come to his mansion at 6'o'oclock and make sure you're not late. That won't set a good first impression"

"I won't, thanks Slick"

And with that our meeting ended. Slick pushed his long black hair back making sure not a single strand was out of place before peeping round the corner to make sure no one was looking before sliding out of the ally and merging with the crowd of busy shoppers in the market. He was a nice guy despite the fact that he was constantly brushing himself up making sure there wasn't a single flaw in his appearance. That was why we called him Slick; his main asset was his smooth and glossy black hair that he took insane amount of care with. That with his purposefully untucked white shirt that had a swirling pattern rising on the left side, long brown coat that fell just above his knees, tight navy blue denim jeans and tall brown cowboy boots to complete the look. He was one of the guys who was constantly looking from attention, especially from the women. Lucky me I would never have that problem as he was twenty seven and I was only sixteen. However his looks weren't the only reason we called him Slick. He was sly and deceitful which is why if you attempted to be friends with him you always needed that in mind as he could stab you in the back and bury your body without a single eye being turned in his direction. Believe me, it wasn't an easy decision for me to get so comfy with him but he does reap benefits as long as you can repay him in one way or another. With this in mind I knew that there was clearly something he wanted from me if he was handing out this opportunity to me. He was a walking mouse trap; reels you in then snags you when you vulnerable.

My name is Melody Benedict, or to my co-workers Candy. First rule of our trade; never give your name away not even to those close to you, which is why we were all given nicknames based on our traits. I was given the name Candy as I was described as sweet and cute as a child as I had been in this 'community' since the age of six. Nowadays they call me Candy not because I'm sweet but because people think of me as 'eye candy'. Someone who is nice to look at or attractive but has little merit or use. This is mostly because I'm the youngest in the group and still considered a child. Funnily enough they do consider me useful for certain things being a savant and all. Humans are divided into two groups, normal and savant. As you can guess 'normal' is the average person, nothing different to any other person and nothing outstanding or special. Savants on the other hand are considered the next stage of human evolution; special powers that make them different from normal people. However savants are extremely rare and mostly feared among society for being different. A savants power can range from things such as telepathy to telekinesis depending on the person. Most savants are born with one ability the occasional with two however I possessed three. The first being able to see a way past things, for example if three people started charging towards me I could successfully find a way to evade them all without being harmed. The seconds was being able to change people's minds or persuade them to do certain things. I used this once to persuade a shopkeeper to give me three loaves of bread, seven fresh apples, and a pint of milk for free. The third and final power allows me to control energy so I could snap my fingers and a bright blue flame would appear between my fingertips. However I rarely used this third ability as it required intense concentration and the larger the fire the more energy I would lose trying to control it. It would also go out of control if I lost my rag or started feeling strong emotions such as fear or sadness. This made it unreliable so I decided that I should keep its usage low.

About thirty seconds after Slick had left I decided he should be far enough away and made my leave being careful not to attract any attention. I quickly blended in with the bustle of busy shoppers making sure I never left a group to make my presence less detectable. While my group was passing a small grocery stall I calculated my timing and quickly made my hand leave the circle and swipe a pear undetected before moving back into the circle. I made sure I was a fair distance away from the stall before biting into the ripe pear and making my way into a less populated street with a single street lamp in the middle of the long dark street. After about five minutes of walking through the shadows I was upon a tall and old abandoned building with smashed windows and steel door. I knocked on the door and waited until Dexter peered through as he opened the door slightly. Dexter (short for dexterous) was our groups handy man and fixed what needed fixing. He was also the one who swapped the broken wooden door for the steel door that he made himself. Dexter was nineteen with shaggy chestnut hair and hazel eyes which gleamed through what we called hipster glasses which had large black rims and clear glass. He wore a black Nike jumper and deep blue jeans with a pair of black Vans. Dexter was usually the one to stay in the house for the day and guard the door while everyone else went out so it paid to be friendly with him.

"Hey Dexter, it's just me" I said smiling at him through the gap.

"Hey Candy, your back early" He said opening the door fully and letting me inside.

"Got a job for tonight so I came back to prepare" I said stepping in and rubbing my feet against the door mat. Even though we were thief's we did try to show some class.

"What kind of job?" Dexter asked now curious.

"Waitress and London's place" I said with a slight smirk.

"London! As in the unfairly rich London who own a gigantic mansion?!" He said mouth now wide open.

"You'll be catching flies like that Dex" I said giggling "Yea that London, getting paid a pretty good sum too"

"What's the occasion?" He said as we walked into the living room.

"Well you know his two daughters?" I said jumping onto the sofa.

"You mean those gorgeous twins!" He said sitting down next to me.

"If by gorgeous you mean sickly then yes" I said giving him a gentle punch in the arm.

"Yea I admit they are awful personality wise but they aren't bad in the looks department"

"Maybe you should date them" I said jokingly.

"Think I'll pass thanks, maybe next time. Anyway continue" He said folding his arms.

"Well their having one of those match making sessions with some of the most eligible men" I said taking on the tone of a posh Brit "and some of their waiters came down with that bug that's going round so they were short of staff. And you know how Slick has his links; he managed to grab himself and me a spot"

"Slick got you the deal? Better watch out, you know he never does these things out of the kindness of his heart" he said taking on a more serious tone "and I hope your aware that there is a more than likely chance that there will be a demon attending"

"Yea I know" I said looking at my feet.

Demons had been part of our lives since about twenty years ago before I was born. The gate between our two worlds got a crack in it and strong demons had been let through. Sure we had things like coal tar from the beginning which most people couldn't see but I'm talking about high ranking demons that could possess human bodies. Luckily we made a deal with them allowing them to freely enter our world as long as they didn't go destroying everything and possessing people. If they overstepped this line it would lead to war and neither of our worlds wanted that. Still, most people lived in fear of the demons especially the lower ranking members of society like me. They were powerful and we were nothing more than trash that floated about hoping not to get caught. However the higher ranking members more than welcomed the demons hoping ones of them would be picked as their partner. Having a demon as a partner gave them protection and even more power than before. The ultimate prize would be a demon king as they held the most power; however no demon king had married a human yet.

"You be careful, you know what the demons can do to us, even a savant won't be enough to defeat them if you get into a fight" Dexter said in a caring tone but still carrying that serious note.

"Don't worry I'll keep my nose out of it and just get on with the job" I said standing up "I better go get ready"

With that I left Dexter to his own devices and went up to my room on the third floor. It was a decently sized room that had been painted a violet colour by the pervious tenant. It contained one single bed, a small wardrobe, desk, and bathroom equipped with a shower, sink, mirror and toilet. Although the building had no electricity or oil we still had running water although it was cold we managed to wash. I walked into the bathroom to look at my appearance through the cracked mirror. The crack ran straight through the centre of the mirror so it was still possible to see through. I took a brush through my long, black, ribbon curled hair before adding some mascara to my eyelashes and a touch of lip gloss to my dried out lips. I quickly checked my clothes to make sure I didn't look like too much of a riff-raff. My purple laced t-shirt only had a few creases in it and my black skirt was still in one piece. My tights however were covered in holes however as that was the style these days it would look like I had done it purposefully. My purple converse were still in good condition as I had only stole them about a week ago. Once I was happy with my appearance I checked my mobile phone to see it was already five-thirty and it took almost thirty minutes to get to the mansion. I grabbed my black satchel and headed out the door once again entering the comfort of the shadows.

I arrived at the mansion with time to spare as I walked up to the gate where two buff security guards stood. Both were identical with shaved heads, black shades, and a smart black tuxedo. They looked like a pair of bad guys goons, strong, big but not very intelligent. Only one of the goons looked at me but didn't say a word.

"I'm here as one of the waitresses?" I said sounding persuasive as I could.

The second goon then took out a list of names. "Name?" He said as emotionless as possible looking like he really didn't care and just wanted me to go away.

"Candy" I replied as he scanned the list and placed a tick next to my name.

The gates then opened and I continued walking until I reached the door. Slick must have been looking out the window for me as he opened the door just before I had chance to ring the doorbell.

"Bout' time you got here Candy! Come on, you need to get changed and help us set up. The guests will be arriving in ten minutes!" He said dragging me inside and equipping me with a black maids outfit the fell just above my knees, long black socks and matching oxfords. He pointed me towards the changing rooms and left me so he could continue with the preparations. No one here wanted to muck up this job. I was the only on in the changing room so I quickly changed into the uniform and tied my hair into a messy plait with my fringe sweeping to one side. Once changed I made my way into the kitchen where everyone seemed busy at work. The chef quickly asked me to start placing food onto the trays and to pour wine into the glasses. It wasn't long before the guests began to arrive and we were sent in with the trays of food. It was simple enough, stand in the back of the room holding the trays occasionally walking round to offer the guests some food or a drink. I stood at the end of the line trying not to attract any attention with the other waitresses. There were six other people in the room who weren't staff. The first being Mr London who owned the house, he wore a smart white tuxedo with a red handkerchief pocking out of his pocket. He had long blonde hair that was pushed back with the assistance of several products and glairing blue eyes. He was a smart man and knew what people wanted and though he seemed to be concentrating on his guest everyone so often you could tell that he was watching us, making sure were weren't an inch out of place. Everyone knew that Mr London did not make his money from good sources but then again who was I to blame, at least he had money. The next two were his daughters Catherine and Melanie, identical twins. To make it even worse they were always matching; tonight they both wore their golden blonde hair with perfect highlights in a large bun on top of their heads and wore long silk designer dresses to show off their figure, Catherine in pink and Melanie in white. They literally made me feel sick with their unnatural perfection and horrible personalities. I honestly couldn't tell if they had a single bone in their body that wasn't fake. Both were the kind who got what they wanted when they wanted because they had daddy wrapped around their little fingers ready to squeeze him dry like a pair of pythons and their pray. And because they got what they wanted and lived in this perfect little fantasy land they wanted nothing more than a price charming to add to their dream land. Someone high of status and rich to the bone like them so when their daddy had been robbed of everything their husbands could take his place. Both of them were the kind to happily marry a demon and nothing short of a demon king. The last three in the room were young men no older then seventeen like the girls. The first had short blonde hair in a sort of mushroom style and big blue eyes that made him look young and innocent. He must have been from some kind of royal family as he wore one of those outfits with the sash and medals. He sat their giving the girls heart-warming smiles and answering all their questions in a polite manner. The second had flared black hair that covered one of his deep brown eyes. He wore a smart black tuxedo and sat in the corner of the sofa making the occasional comment but not really making much input. You could tell he didn't want to be here at all. The final one had hair a shade darker then the first and was by far the most sociable one there but also the least slim and his belly hung out like a second bum. He was constantly calling one of us over for food and it honestly seemed that he couldn't go thirty seconds without it. The girls were making their usual flirtatious conversation but you could see that they had something else on their minds, like they weren't making their full effort but saving it for something else.

One of the butlers then stepped inside the doorway being careful not to overstep the line. "Sir the final guest has arrived" He said stepping aside.

Everyone else arrived over an hour ago, why is he so late?

A young man who looked just slightly older than the rest stepped through the door and into the living room. He had hair that fell just above his neck and was two shades of green, the top half being a lighter shade with a large spike sticking out and the bottom half a mess deeper green. His feature were sharp and perfected but not in an unnatural way. His face however showed no emotion, his mouth a delicate line and his gentle but tired looking with a summer sky blue hue. He wore a red and black striped shirt, yellow and orange rectangular shaped tie, and white waistcoat with golden cross bones as buttons. His trousers were a maroon colour with small yellow dots and ended just below his knees and continued with what looked like deep green tights or leggings with brown boots that curled upwards at the ends. He also wore long green gloves that looked like they had been burned where the fingers of the gloves should be and became fingerless. His coat was the same maroon colour as his trousers with the collar up and the sleeves ended at his elbows, while the end of the coat had a similar burned pattern as the gloves and looked ragged with holes which ended around knee length. The coat also had skull buttons to match the waistcoat but was left unbuttoned to show of the rest of the outfit. He walked in paying no respect to the host and looking around the room before lying himself down on an empty sofa.

"May I introduce my lovely daughters, Catherine and Melanie. Girls, this is Amaimon, the demon kind of earth" Mr London said proudly.

The girls immediately adjusted their posture making it straighter their eyes wider and front more pushed out. This was what they had been saving themselves for. The demon gave them a quick glance before brushing them off like any other common person.

"Would you like something to eat sir?" London said signalling us all to come over and offer our trays to him. He examined each tray carefully before looking back at London.

"Where are the sweets?" He said with an emotionless tone to match his face.

"S-Sweets?" Mr London said looking at the trays filled with savoury foods "We thought it best to leave the sweeter options for dessert" He said with a single sweat drop scaling down his forehead. Everyone knew that you should never get on a demons bad side and so far we weren't exactly on his good side.

"I like sweets" the demon said with a slightly angrier tone.

We all knew that if we ruined this and the demon wasn't happy then none of us were getting paid. Everyone was trying to think of a solution to this problem but none of the desserts were ready so there was nothing we could offer him. I then remembered that I had an unwrapped lollipop in my pocket that I was saving for later to celebrate a job well done but if this would save us from getting no pay at all I guess it was worth it. I took the sweet from my pocket and held it out to him.

"Here" I said as he looked towards me and then at the lollipop. Yes I knew it wasn't exactly five star but it was a chance worth taking.

"What is it?" He said still looking at it questionably.

"It's a lollipop, a sweet that you suck on" I replied trying to keep my tone calm.

He slowly took the sweet from me and looked it over before unwrapping it and placing it in his mouth. He stayed emotionless for a few moments before a slight grin appeared in the corner of his mouth and we all sighed with relief.

"I like it, what's your name?" He said paying slightly more attention to me.

"Candy…sir" I said being careful not to overstep this comfort zone.

"Hmm Candy the commoner, interesting…" He said taking my face in his claws and examining me carefully.

Now that he was closer I could see his pointed ears and slightly sharpened teeth a bit like a vampire who was about to sink his teeth into me. The closeness was tipping me over the edge, I didn't feel comfortable and the fact that this was a demon king made my brain start to pound with fear. I was terrified. What he did next went too far and I was no longer in control of my emotions. He came close and gentle licked my cheek as if I was another lollipop and I was in his control. I lost it and might as well have signed my name onto deaths list for what I did I was almost certain I was dead. I raised my hand and before he noticed smacked him around the face making him let go as I backed into the corner.

"Stay away from me!" I growled trying to sound threatening but it came out more like a whimpering puppy. I was shaking and had wrapped my arms behind my back knowing that a single touch from him could shatter them in a second.

He howled with laughter and his expression lightened. "Oh boy I like you. Smack a demon king knowing I could snap you in half, wow your fun" He said leaping over to me as I tried to back away. He quickly backed me into a corner and placed his arms either side to box me in. "Calm down I'm not going to hurt you, you're way too much fun"

I looked over his shoulder to see Catherine and Melanie faces bright red with frustration. They both wanted this demon for themselves and here I was unintentionally taking all his attention. Mr London must have seen his daughter's faces and quickly walked over to me. "I think it's about time you left" He said glaring knifes at me. I quickly ducked under Amaimon's arms and rushed out of the room where Mr London followed me.

"You little brat! I let you work here for a good sum out of the kindness of my heart and there you are stealing our guests attention away from my daughters" He said with his face going just as red as theirs. The rest of the staff had been peering round the corner trying to hear what was going on. "Thanks to you no one will be getting paid tonight!" He grunted.

I looked at our audience to find Slick with his teeth clenched and eyes focused on me. I knew this would not end well if he didn't get paid thanks to me. Now was a good time to use my powers.

"Please sir, it was my fault so don't punish the others" I said reaching for his brain patterns and changing his decision. I would have loved to have made it so that I also got paid but then it would be far to obvious that something was going on. I finally managed to calm him enough.

"Fine the other will get paid but you need to leave now!" He said finger pointed at the door.

I quickly grabbed my bag with my clothes in it and raced away from the mansion before I got everyone into more trouble. I didn't even pay a glance at the goons at the front I just ran as fast as I could. After about five minutes of running at my top speed I stopped gasping for air with my hands on my knees. Luckily for me I was on a quiet street at night so no one was there to witness this.