Hellbound With You

The sun was already a red ball, kissing the horizon when Alicia rose from her seat to leave. The group had just finished their short discussion that was mainly revolving around Zeres' hideout and how would Alicia safely infiltrate the enemy's camp without fighting the undead vampires at the front line.

Aside from Alicia insisting that she be the one to go, everyone else knew deep down as well that her offer was the most logical thing they could do at the moment.

"But will she be alright?" Kyle asked, unable to hide his worry anymore. Even though he somehow knew as surely as he knew his own name that Zeres would not hurt Alicia, it is undeniable that the witch queen was currently in a very vulnerable state. Letting her go alone troubled him so much that he kept glancing at his brother, waiting for him to give that assurance that he will be following Alicia along but in secret.

Kyle felt that his heart was going to explode out of frustration and anticipation waiting for his brother's announcement. But it never came. Ezekiel only remained quiet and didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, Zeres will not harm me." Alicia flashed a small but reassuring smile towards the young prince, touched at his obvious care and worry for her well-being.

"I know, but… someone should at least accompany you in secret," Kyle responded, giving his brother a quick look hoping it would be hint enough for him to say something. Though he was well aware that it was a bad idea to let anyone of them go with Alicia as it could trigger Zeres in alerting his minions to move and start the fight in advance, so he enunciated the words 'in secret'. Though he did not know how, he was somewhat certain that there must be a way that they can carry it out. And the one who could make something like that possible would be no one else than his brother.

"It's alright, Kyle. I'll be fine. It's too risky for any of you to approach any closer." Alicia said reaching out to pat Kyle's shoulder.

Realizing that it was useless for him to keep talking or persuading, Kyle could only drop his eyes to the ground in disappointment and kept his mouth shut petulantly. They all knew that Alicia was the only one who even had an inkling of a chance of approaching and speaking with Zeres right now. They had seen just how important Alicia was to Zeres that he would stop at nothing to save her. There was no one better and who had the best chance possible of changing his mind but her.

"I'll see you soon…" she smiled at the boy again and Kyle forced himself to nod.

"P…please be careful and come back to us safely… with Zeres…" there was a trace of liquid shine in Kyle's eyes as he choked out.

"Mm." Alicia hugged the boy. And then nodded at the others before Zeke gathered her in his arms and leapt with her down the hill to the highway bellow.

"Do not attack him, Ezekiel." Alicia told him as they both stood by the road, waiting for the taxi that would bring Alicia to her destination. "I will do my best to persuade him to change his mind." Alicia sounded confident as she said that to Ezekiel however, deep in her heart, she was nowhere near as confident as she sounded. She could only pray and desperately cling onto the hope that Zeres would be willing to listen and seriously consider her words.

Zeke was silent for a moment as he silently stared at her, his face a blank page that Alicia could not read at all. "I will only give you a night and a day Alicia." He eventually responded. "If you cannot return with good news before sunset tomorrow, we'll be forced to make our move. There is no other choice." He added decisively.

Even though Alicia wanted to protest, she couldn't, knowing that it would be ridiculous of her to do that. She understood that the conditions Ezekiel had just mentioned was already quite a generous compromise on his part with the current situation they were all facing as they knew how dangerous the state of affairs could turn out to be if Zeres truly mobilise all those undead vampires. All she could do now was to try and stop Zeres and if possible, to change his mind whatever the cost before sunset tomorrow. She knew that Ezekiel would not wait any longer than the stipulated time that he had given her.

At that moment, a car finally halted before them. "Well then, I'm going…" Alicia said and when Zeke didn't say anything, she turned but paused after taking just a couple of steps and looked back at him.

"You really won't tell me anything about what the prophetess had seen?" She asked, her gaze intent as she waited for him to respond. During their talk with the group a while ago, Alicia had been waiting for the prophetess to speak, but the woman said nothing until the very end. Neither did Ezekiel mention anything of much importance as well, causing Alicia to suspect even more.

Realizing that it was truly impossible to make him say anything, Alicia sighed in disappointment.

"Alright, I understand." She then said and turned around to open the door.

She sat in the back seat and was about to pull the door close when Ezekiel suddenly appeared beside the car and held the door from closing. Surprised and curious, Alicia looked up at him.

Ezekiel's eyes were trained on the driver and was talking to him as his hand grab Alicia's hand, and she felt something touching her palms and then his hands were closing her grip on something.

"Yes, boss. I will definitely deliver her to her destination safely." The driver said, smiling and gave Zeke a confident thumbs up, and Zeke finally pulled away and closed the door.

He stared back at Alicia through the window as the car accelerated.

With creased brows, Alicia looked down at the thing he had pushed into her hand and was surprised to see a small silver dagger.