Hellbound With You

Back in the villa, Alicia was standing by the window. Her deep contemplating gaze focused on the bright moon hanging in the sky. She noticed the drain on her powers and was starting to feel weak again, so she thought it was better if she headed off to bed now. Tomorrow, Ezekiel will be arriving with the others and they will finally make their move. She was going to regain her strength, her powers and everything will be fine and back to normal again.

But that tiny nagging ball of unease inside her kept growing by the minute no matter how much she tried to distract herself or ignore it. This seems to bring the premonition of worse things coming.

Heaving a sigh, she sat down heavily on her bed. Zeres had not returned after he left to take the food tray back down to the kitchen. She didn't know why but she realized that unexplainable feeling of unease tends to calm down a little when Zeres was around her. She found it strange.

Shaking her head, Alicia fell back on the bed, forcing herself to sleep. But moments later, she rose again. She grabbed her black cloak and stepped out of her room.

The house was quiet, and she could no longer sense where everyone is. Thankfully, just as Alicia was about to descend the stairs, she saw Lucas stepping out of the room at the far end of the walkway.

She waited for him to come nearer before greeting him. "Good evening, Lucas."

"Good evening, Queen Alicia." The red-haired responded.

"Have you seen Zeres?" Alicia asked. She peeked at him through her hood and she saw him looking to the door right next to her room. "Oh, thank you." she added upon understanding the vampire's gaze and the man just silently nodded at her before descending the stairs.

Alicia sighed and approached the door. Standing there with her right hand raised and curled, she paused a moment, but before she could knock, the door suddenly swung open. Zeres looked surprised. He had sensed her leaving her room, but he had thought she was just heading to the bathroom, so he didn't move to check on her.

"Is there something you –" Zeres started asking and Alicia spoke at the same time.

"May I come in?" Alicia broke off and Zeres blinked at her before answering her question by stepping back, making way for her to enter. As she quickly glanced around, she noticed that his room was shabby. It seems that her room was probably the tidiest one in this house.

Since there was no chair anywhere in the room, Alicia pulled down her hood perched at the edge of his bed while Zeres remained standing by the door, looking at her with curious gaze. His eyes silently asking her what she was doing here.

"What is it?" he finally asked her, and Alicia lifted her face. She had sought him out as there was something that she needed him to confirm. And she was right. That unknown feeling of unease did settle now that she was physically present with him.

Her brows knotted hard in confusion and curiosity. Why? What is it that is causing this weird occurrence? Is there a reason for it? Could it be that her unease has something to do with him?

"Zeres, why are you still wearing your cloak?" That was not the question she had been meaning to ask but she didn't know if she should straight up tell him about her suspicions and what was troubling her. Thus, she ended up asking random questions instead.

But her question unexpectedly made him looked uncomfortable and that alerted Alicia that something else was going on – something was off. Her eyes focused and did a swift scan of him and then narrowed into slits as she realized that she had never seen Zeres take off his cloak since they left the desert.

"I… just don't want to take it off. Um… this is so that I won't forget to put it on in case something sudden or an emergency happens." He reasoned but unfortunately, Alicia wasn't buying a single word of it.

She stood and approached him steadily, eyes still narrowed on him. But Zeres hastily walked away from the door and towards the window and leaned there, obviously trying to avoid her. "You should go back to your room now Alicia. Kiel will probably arrive at dawn so you should…" he trailed off as he saw that Alicia was firm in her decision of coming towards him.

He straightened and began to move sideways. Alicia advanced and he retreated, moving away from her as if it would result in fatal harm, the moment she caught him. They continued this awkward dance for a few seconds.

Alicia abruptly halted, staring hard at him. "Zeres! Stop moving away, damn it." she breathed because she could already feel her knees weakening, with just those few steps she had taken to approach him. Even her lungs started to heave and burn as though she had just chased Zeres for miles when in fact, they were only moving around inside a small room. And to make it worse, she couldn't even catch him with all that stepping around! She couldn't help but curse her failing body though she ended up making it look like she was cursing at him.

"Are you alright?" Zeres ended up being the one who approached her this time, worry visibly etched on his face. "Please, you have to go back to your room and rest." He attempted to hold onto her shoulders to support her when suddenly, Alicia reached out to tightly grasp onto his cloak – as much as her meagre strength allowed her to.

He jolted back, wide-eyed – as the cloak pulled out of her weak grasp. Alicia was as shocked as he was at his reaction. And the queen's stubborn will to find out what she wanted to know kicked into higher gear and despite her breathlessness, she reached out again for his cloak.

However, Zeres also stubbornly stepped back despite the worry for Alicia's depleting energy and alertness in his eyes. Refusing to be caught yet prepared to catch her if ever she falls. But that was until the back of his knees hit the frame of the bed and Alicia grabbed that chance to attack.

Her hands clasped onto his cloak hard, but her body finally lost its strength and as Zeres reached out to catch her from toppling over, Alicia flung his cloak off.