Hellbound With You

The sun was already setting when Alicia finally opened her eyes and woke up. She remembered that she had fainted again as they were making their way to this place. But somehow, like what seems to be the norm now, happened again where she always felt better every time she wakes up. It seemed she at least regained some strength after being out for hours.

Pushing herself up, Alicia sat and stared at her hands. She clenched them as tightly as she could into a fist as if to check if the strength that she had regained this time improved a little. To her dismay, nothing changed. It had been like this for a while now. She would faint from weakness and then after waking up, she would regained just enough strength to stand and move around on her own.

She put her palms over her face. The awful feeling in her chest started to boil again when she finally noticed a large black figure slumped to one side on the floor. It was Zeres. And he was sitting on the floor with his back against the door, sleeping.

Surprised, Alicia climbed off the bed and approached him. He was still wearing his cloak and his hood covered the half of his face.

The sight of him sleeping there made Alicia frown hard. Why was he sleeping there?

Bending over, Alicia reached out for his hood when his strong hand suddenly grabbed her wrist as he moved and looked up.

As his hood fell off his head, Alicia had frozen in the act of lifting his hood, her eyes round with alarm. Because his gaze had become so intense and cold and dark, the kind of gaze Alicia never thought would belong to this particular man.

"Zeres…" she whispered, and the darkness quickly dissipated as if it was never there in the first place. He looked away almost immediately.

"I'm sorry." He apologized as he loosened his grip on her wrist and let go.

Silence reigned between them for a moment before Alicia managed to speak again.

"Why are you sleeping on the floor?" she asked but he didn't answer. He rose instead and reached for the door knob.

"I'll go get you some food to eat. We'll be leaving again in an hour."

Without giving her the chance to respond, he silently and swiftly closed the door behind him. With confused and troubled expression, Alicia just stood there, staring at the door.

He returned after a short while with her food and Alicia ate in silence. Since she noticed her darkening hair and even her brows and lashes, Alicia had long since stopped eating with the group. Zeres had been bringing her food and she ate alone in her room. Lately, he had been joining her in having their meals in the room and they ate in silence, both entertaining heavy thoughts.

Having Zeres acting like her personal servant had her feeling upset toward herself but she knew there was no other available options – at least for now. Also, he had been quite insistent. Knowing and seeing that the man was feeling guilty and responsible for her also made Alicia relent albeit a little grudgingly but lately, their situation was getting more and more unbearable.

She had never thought she would find herself in this state, depending on someone to do every little thing like she was an invalid. She was beaten enough, and she had stopped thinking. That was a mercy she could do for herself. But now, this man started to bother her.

Now that she stopped thinking about her own predicaments and finally took a good look at him – really looked at him – she realized just how much he had changed. Nothing in his docile and angel-like appearance had changed but for some reason, he now felt like a different person. He didn't even look into her eyes when he speaks to her anymore.

"Have you eaten?" she asked, observing him. She realized this was the first time she was voluntarily talking to him again in a long time.

He responded with a nod, saying nothing.

"Zeres." She called his name, hoping that he would look up at her. When he didn't, she pressed her lips tight and quietly exhaled. "Look at me." She demanded.

This time, he listened and when their eyes met, Alicia could not speak. When did his eyes become so empty like that? His eyes had always been expressive that Alicia could easily read his emotions before, but now she could not read anything, could not find any emotions in them. They were… frighteningly empty. What had happened to him that caused this? Her heart shook a little thinking of it.

"Please finish your meal now, Queen Alicia." He rose and then approached her. He grabbed the pitcher and poured her a glass of water as Alicia watched, realizing that this man had been doing all these small yet necessary tasks for her for many days now – all without any complaints.

Silently, Alicia forced herself to continue eating. She had no appetite and the only reason she was eating now was because she was desperate to gain more strength, hoping that she could at least lessen the burden she was giving him.

They both went downstairs once Alicia was done with her meal and freshened up sufficiently, wearing her black cloak with hood covering her face again. The vampires were already waiting for them, except Zeke.

"His Highness said we must not leave until he arrives." The ginger-head said before Zeres could even ask about the whereabouts of their group's leader.

Zeres' eyes narrowed. "When did he leave?"

"About six hours ago."

Surprised, Zeres stilled and then, his face darkened.

Feeling the quiet but heavy aura coming from Zeres, Alicia squeezed his hand a little. "Let's just wait for him. Ezekiel always like to move solo when things gets serious. I'm certain he'd be back soon with valuable information." She said.

Kyle, who had not heard her voice in a long time, only smiled and happily nodded his agreement with her. "Shall we wait for him outside?" he suggested, and the rest agreed to it by moving out of the house.

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