Hellbound Heart

This chapter is dedicated to @Sacogun. Thank you so much for the supergift!

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Once the door was closed, Elle worriedly reached out and touched Sebastian's arm. His unexpected action and the sight of him really drinking blood right in front of her from someone was... Elle could not quite explain the feeling. But surprisingly, she found it not to be as gross or terrifying as she had once thought it would be.

"Are you –"

"Shh." Sebastian hushed her. "Talk once more and I'll do the thing I promised I'd do to you. You've talked enough, Izabelle. I'm fine. So you don't have to worry about anything."

Pressing her lips together, she rushed towards the bed and grabbed her notebook and pen. She then flipped to a new page and quickly scribbled what she wanted to say.

'But you were wincing when you drank. Was it really just because it tasted bad?' she asked.

The look in his eyes seemed gentle when he lifted his eyes to hers. "Yes. The taste is actually tolerable. But it's just something my palate could barely handle." Tucking his hands inside his pockets, he leaned against the door as he continued staring at her. "But after a few more meals, I'll definitely get used to it."

Elle's grip on her pen tightened a little before she dropped her head down and again wrote hastily on her notebook. 'Would it be preferable if you drink from the glass? That's okay with me.'

His reaction was contrary to what she was expecting. His face and eyes suddenly turned blank as he stared at her writings. Causing Elle to crease her brows. Looking back to her notebook, she scanned the contents, trying to see what was it that caused that reaction. After seeing that there was nothing out of the ordinary, she turned back to look at him.

Just when she was about to open her lips to call his name, he lifted his eyes back to hers. The blankness was now gone, as if she had imagined what she had seen a little while ago.

"I'd rather drink from men and tolerate the bad taste." He casually replied. "Drinking from a glass is a no for me."

Her big blue eyes looked at him with a big 'why' plastered across them.

"It's just one of my personal convictions." He shrugged as he replied. As though he was merely stating a certain fact. But Elle went very still after hearing what he said. The sound of 'my personal convictions' had her immediately thinking of his other rules and how those rules were never simple.

She did not open her mouth nor write down a single word. She just stared at him quietly when he continued nonchalantly. "I was brutally forced to drink someone's filthy blood from a glass when I was younger. Since then, no matter who the blood came from, if I have to drink it from a glass, it always tastes exactly the same as that... filthy blood. I'll end up vomiting it out if I force myself. Though I haven't once planned to deal with it yet, as I don't think there is a need since I still have other choices..." he trailed off. Surprise flickered in his grey eyes and it was not because he was shocked about what he had just said. But to the fact that he had actually expressed those things so easily like he was merely talking about something as mundane as the weather.

Seeing the somewhat blank look with a hint of question on her face, Sebastian forced himself off the door and grabbed her hand. He led her back to the bed and made her sit there.

Taking a long quiet breath, Sebastian squatted before her again. "You really have to rest, Izabelle. You need as much rest as possible to heal quickly." He told her seriously. "I want you to rest so you can finally recover. And fully at that."

When she kept on staring at the smear of blood on his shirt's sleeve, Sebastian rose. "I'll go get changed." he said and sauntered towards the dressing room.

Elle looked down on her notebook and took a long deep breath. The expression on her face was one that was curious and wanting to know something.

She wrote something on the paper but scratched it out and wrote something again. She did that for a few more times until Sebastian returned. It was as though she kept on having a change of mind on how to best word the question she wanted to ask.

Wearing a sleek white shirt Elle rarely saw him in, Sebastian approached her, looking so much fresher than ever. Now that she had a comparison, Elle could tell the difference if this man was well fed compared to when he was hungry and starving.

For a long while, Elle just stared at him. She just sat there appreciating and savoring his refreshing look that was rare to be seen. Until he towered before her and looked down at her notebook. 'So I am not considered as one of those choices you have to feed on?'

Elle immediately flipped the notebook to hide the words she wrote but it seemed, his eyes were faster than her movements. From the change and flicker in his eyes, Elle knew that he must have already read that question that she had penned in the notebook.

His gaze moved slowly from the notebook up to her eyes.

"I'm not going to turn you into my food, Izabelle." he said in a serious and deep tone. His gaze became devil-bright for a moment. "Like I told you before, it only works for vampire couples, because both would benefit from it. Both would feel pleasure from it. If I do that to you, that's just me feeding, while you're the food. And not to mention that no matter how much control I have, I'm still going to endanger your life in the process. I will be the only one who will feel pleasure from it, while you get hurt."

Lost for words to retort to his long statement, Elle just looked down at her notebook. She could not think of another question to ask nor give a response. But before she realized it, her hand already wrote down something that made his pupils dilate.

'I can handle it.'