It only took two seconds for Candi to make a run for the double doors. They had already begun to close but she wasn’t a trained athlete for nothing.

She launched herself through the rapidly closing gap between the doors and found herself back in the foyer as the doors thudded shut behind her.

Candi’s head whipped right to left. There had to be another exit other than the single elevator that stared at her from across the wide expanse of oriental carpeting.

She ran for the elevator and banged on the button to call it up.

Too slow! There had to be a stairwell.

She ran to the left side of the foyer, where she could make out a stairwell door recessed between two pillars.

Candi yanked on the door and found herself looking at the darkened interior of the stairwell.

Without hesitation, she plunged through and began running down the stairs.

The penthouse was at the top of the skyscraper. To reach the bottom, she had to run down fifty stories.

Her feet began, on their own accord, pattering down, down, down, as she made the twists and turns at the end of each landing.

Even as physically fit as Candi was, by the time she reached the midway point, she was starting to run out of steam.

By the time she had reached the bottom set of stairs, she was dripping in sweat and shaking with adrenaline.

She grabbed the final door and pushed through. Then she collapsed on the floor, breathing and gasping to get enough air into her lungs.

She had to find her way back to the lobby area and find the organizer of the event.

In a busy crowded area, those seven winged-demons would not spring up and carry her off to snack on her skinny bones.

At least she hoped they wouldn’t.

Candi looked up into the darkened hallway she found herself in.

Left or right.

She took a deep breath. It didn’t matter left or right. It only mattered that she kept moving.

On a whim, Candi took the left side and began looking for the doorway that would take her out into a more public crowded area.

To her right, a set of double doors appeared.

Finally!

She burst through the doors and raised a hand over her eyes as bright sunlight hit her face.

She cautiously opened her eyes to survey the room she found herself in.

The bright blue sky could be seen from every single glass floor-to-ceiling window in the entire sun-drenched room.

“Well that was quick.” A familiar gravelly voice greeted her.

Candi gritted her teeth and shut her eyes.

She was back in that damned penthouse atop the skyscraper.

She turned around and grabbed the handles of the doorway, tugging at it to try another escape attempt.

This time, the doors would not even budge. She was effectively locked in with these demons.

Candi whipped her head around.

The seven demons had begun gathering around her.

She stifled a shriek and scampered to her right, squeezing in between two of the demons.

Intellectually, she knew there was no escape avenue within the penthouse other than the now-locked double doors.

Instinctively, however, she needed to put some distance between herself and these demons even if there was nowhere for her to run.

They were already turning towards her.

She took a running jump onto the cushioned settee that was between her and the piano at that end of the room.

Vaulting into a perfect grand jeté, Candi sprang from the settee onto the shiny black top of the grand piano.

She reached over and grabbed the heavy crystal lamp that had been set with care on a side table next to the piano. Ripping the shade off with a careless hand, she turned the heavy base around, wielding it as a cudgel.

Then she turned back to face them, waving the lamp cudgel at the demons.

From this height, she had the advantage of looking down upon the seven demons.

“Don’t come near me or I swear, I will bash your heads in with this!”

The seven demons stood there gazing up at her.

One of them rubbed his jaw with bored fingers. “You can put that lamp down now, Cancandi.”

It was the first demon who had spoken with her the night before. “It is an old heirloom that I’d like to keep intact.”

In the bright glorious sunshine, he did not look as menacing as he did the night before.

His long platinum blond hair glistened in the light like a golden waterfall, framing a classically beautiful male face with aquamarine eyes so clear and warm, she could be forgiven for thinking he was a tenderhearted kind person.

But he did not fool her. She could remember his large dark figure, his faceless visage, and those horrifying black leather wings that were twice his size in length and width.

Her hands shook. There was only one of her and a single lamp base.

There were seven of them and they were all very large demons with supernatural powers.

The demon sighed with barely concealed impatience and took a step towards her.

“Stay where you are, Blondie!” She waved the lamp base at him.

The other demons began chuckling at her choice of words.

“Hear that, Blondie? She told you to stay where you are. Hahaha.”

She glanced at the demon who laughed at Blondie.

He was the tallest one, with a shock of spiky blue hair that almost touched the top of his shoulders and sparkling green eyes.

But of course, he was not a human. None of these demons were.

“You too, Spiky Blue.” She hissed at him.

The men continued laughing.

“Do we all get cute nicknames too?” A demon with soft pinkish blonde hair and deep amber eyes chimed in. “Please don’t call me Pinky.”

A roar of laughter rippled across the seven males standing in front of her.

“We can stop laughing at her now. You lug heads are scaring her to death.” Another demon spoke up.

This one seemed familiar to her. He had deep raven black hair that was tied back at the nape and the most intense, dazzling blue eyes she had ever seen.

“You!” She pointed the crystal lamp cudgel at him.

“You’re the one who nearly killed me last night!”