The Alchemists

Ugh, the situation was really bad right now, Nicolae thought. Mischa turned the tables and caused the situation to be increasingly unbalanced by involving a gun. Nicolae never carried a weapon with him, except for his Swiss Knives, even though some of his friends insisted that he should start protecting himself more seriously.

His physical strength had been enough to keep him safe all this time, even when met thugs with firearms. However, he never dealt with professional assassin like Mischa before, who was physically as strong as him and carried a gun, and now Nicolae regretted not listening to his friends.

"I don't have time to play with you ..." said Mischa while wiping the blood from the corner of his lips. He glanced at the injured Takeshi, then at Nicolae's sports car, trying to see if Aleksis was inside.

Nicolae followed the direction of Mischa's eyes on his car.

"Ah ... Aleksis ..." he muttered. He immediately remembered that Aleksis' safety was still at stake if he did not get rid of this opponent in front of him. Without thinking, he pulled his Swiss Knives from his back pocket, opened the knives set and threw it at Mischa to get rid of the gun.

Mischa was faster, he had pulled the trigger while trying to avoid Nicolae's knife throw, but the knife managed to hit his hand just half a second after the bullet was fired.

"Aaghhh ... !!"

There was a cry of pain from both men. Mischa dropped the gun he was holding and held his injured right hand which was covered in blood, while Nicolae, who did not have time to avoid the shot, got wounded on his left shoulder.

Aleksis, who was waiting in the car and could not contain her stress, was very shocked to hear the sound of a gunshot. She did not see Nicolae carrying a gun earlier, so that only meant that the criminal, who was about to kidnap her, was the one who had fired earlier ...

Who was shot ...? Was ... was Nicolae shot? Was he dead ... ???

Aleksis saw the car keys hanging in the car and remembered Nicolae's message to escape and look for help if anything happened to him ...

But how could Aleksis run away and leave someone who had fought hard to help her?

Oh God ... if only her bodyguards were here ... If Lauriel were here ... If Alaric were here with her....

Aleksis cried thinking about those people ... They must be very worried.

She wiped her eyes that were wet with tears and made up her mind to try to get the criminals to talk and offer them a huge amount of money to let her and Nicolae go ...

"Nico ... !! Are you all right?" She got out of the car and immediately ran towards Nicolae who was holding his bloody shoulder.

"Aleksis!! Stay in the car!" exclaimed Nicolae in a painful voice.

"Miss, are you okay???!!" Mischa exclaimed in a relieved voice.

The two of them talked at the same time, and when they heard each other's sentences, Nicolae and Mischa stared at each other in surprise.

"You … ??"

"Who are you?!"

Aleksis was stunned to see the three injured people in front of her.

"Wh ... what happened ...? Why did you guys fight?" she asked, feeling confused and worried at the same time.

"We saw him kidnap Miss, so we immediately chased after you ..." said Mischa in a puzzled tone, "But you are OK?"

"He didn't kidnap me, Mischa ... He told me that he saw two suspicious people spying on me and he suspected that they intended to kidnap me ..." Aleksis sighed deeply. She then turned to Nicolae, "Are the two people you saw earlier these guys? Takeshi and Mischa?"

Nicolae shook his head, "No, it wasn't them ... those two were older and they looked very suspicious. They looked like regular thugs. They happened to be driving the same black car. When these two people were chasing us, I thought they were part of those kidnappers thugs ..."

"Ouch ..." Aleksis and all the people who had fought all out soon realized that they had misunderstood each other. Nicolae was about to save Aleksis from the kidnappers, but Mischa and Takeshi, who saw him run away with Aleksis, thought that Nicolae wanted to hurt her, while Nicolae thought Takeshi and Mischa were members of the criminals who were chasing them.

The girl examined the unconscious Takeshi then tore her shirt and handed it to Mischa so that he could bandage the wound on his hand. Then she knelt down and approached Nicolae who was now sitting and trying to examine his own wound.

"Were you shot?" Aleksis asked with concern.

She felt very guilty for causing all the men to be injured today.

Nicolae just nodded, not replying.

"Mischa ... can you take Takeshi to the hospital? I will take Nicolae to get help. I will find out who tried to kidnap me ... You guys please take good care of yourself ..."

Mischa nodded. He got up and carried Takeshi into the car. Then, he helped Aleksis carry Nicolae into his car. Aleksis was not strong enough to support the big guy on her own.

When Nicolae and Mischa's eyes met with each other, they stared at each other intently and frowned at the same time. Mischa wondered who the young man really was.

Nicolae too. He couldn't help thinking why these two stalkers had such a good relationship with Aleksis. Were they friends? Were they her bodyguards ...?

He decided to keep his questions to himself until the situation calmed down.

Nicolae was seated in the back seat and Aleksis took the wheel to drive them both home.

"Mischa, thank you for taking care of me, and I'm sorry that the two of you got hurt like this. It's just a misunderstanding ... please take care of yourself, and I hope you'll recover quickly ..." Aleksis said as she started the engine. Mischa nodded and walked to his car. Aleksis then hurriedly drove the car to the Continental Hotel.

She knew she would not be able to bring Nicolae to the hospital because of his gunshot wound. The hospital would immediately alert the police and Mischa would be in trouble, even though this was all just a misunderstanding ... At a critical time like this, she could only rely on Lauriel to help Nicolae.

Lauriel would know what needed to be done to remove the bullet and treat Nicolae's wounds. Lauriel would definitely have a cure for Nicolae, she thought.

Mischa took a deep breath and got into the car. He had to endure so much pain when he started the engine, because Nicolae's knife had caused a large wound between his thumb and forefinger, he had difficulties turning the key.

He must immediately tell Alaric what had happened.