Hellbound With You

"Are you hungry?" she heard him ask in a gentle voice. She still couldn't quite get use to all that gentleness. Just hearing it made her think that she was hallucinating if not for the fact that she was hearing him say it with her own two ears.

Iryz shook her head immediately. "I'll eat later. Not feeling that hungry yet."

Another silence passed but Iryz still kept her face buried into her palms, not wanting to face him directly.

"Iryz…" he spoke. "I've brought the special ointment with me."

"Ointment?"

"Yes. The one I told you I'll get from Lilith."

Iryz slowly dropped her hands and looked up at him. There was a small smile on his face as he showed her a small jar in his hand. Was this the ointment that he had told her could remove the scars from her torture?

"Is this why you were gone when I woke up?" Iryz asked him, not fully believing that he would go to such lengths and take up so much of his precious time to be running around getting things for her. But seeing that little tub of ointment sitting on his outstretched palm, she could only believe the unbelievable for her.

He nodded. "I've met up with Lilith's trusted subordinate a while ago." He opened the jar and Iryz could smell the aromatic scent wafting over to where she was. Its smell was soothing.

Silently, Zeres used his forefinger to scoop the gel like ointment and held it out to her. "May I?" he asked a little hesitantly and Irys nodded, allowing her eyes to slowly drift close.

Soon, she felt his fingers touching the wound on her face as he slowly and carefully applied the ointment to it. And despite the heavy thuds of her heart, Iryz was not willing to stop him and take the ointment from him so she could do the task herself.

That was until his finger reached down to her collarbones. Iryz opened her eyes and stared at him. He was squatting before her, looking ever so focused as though he was carrying out an incredibly important job. Something that requires his undivided attention.

Iryz could not help but press her lips tight together. He was right here, just doing his task seriously, yet here she was, feeling all these kind of emotions as he touched her. She took in another quiet breath. She really needed to stop whatever she was thinking right now. She also really needed to stop him now, for her sake as much as for him.

But before she could say or do anything, she felt his finger stop. Looking down, she saw that it had stopped near her cleavage.

When he lifted his gaze, their eyes met. Iryz forgot to breathe once again because, gosh… his extremely good-looking face was just too close and… and…

"I'm sorry." He quickly said, his hand now lifting away, as if a policeman had just yelled at him the words 'hands up'.

He cleared his throat and stood up awkwardly. "I… I'll ask a female nurse to help you with this." he said, rubbing the back of his neck before he turned and left the room without waiting for her answer.

Iryz could only bury her face into her palms again, groaning out loud at how awkward the situation had become just now.

…

While the nurse that was called to come and assist her was spreading the ointment all over her back, Iryz was sketching on her sketchpad the entire time. She had done that to distract herself from thinking about Zeres but when the nurse told her that she was done, Iryz quickly shut her sketchpad at the realization that… she had drawn a picture of her and Zeres while he was putting on ointment for her at the wound on her collar bones. Oh, damn it, Iryz!

"Let's help you get dressed now, Miss." The nurse said and she could only nod helplessly.

Once they stepped out of the bedroom, Iryz was surprised to see that there were a lot of books stacked up all around in the luxurious living room. When she saw Zeres on the couch busily flipping the pages of an extremely thick book, Iryz stilled in her movements. Her eyes scanned over his serious face as he pored over the contents of the book only served to remind Iryz about Zeres' main and only goal all these while when he was with her.

He lifted his face and upon sensing her presence there, he put the book down and approached her.

"Your meal is ready," he said and offered her his hand to aid her in walking to the kitchen.

Iryz held onto him even though her mind kept telling her not to, and once he settled her in the kitchen, he removed the covers of the food on the table. "I couldn't find Lucas to come and cook for you, so this meal might not be as good as his dish." Zeres casually said.

"It's fine. I'm not really picky with my food." Iryz replied, smiling. She was already very thankful that someone was even willing to help prepare food for her to eat. Thus, there truly was no complaint on her part on whether the food was great or just ordinary. Zeres had already told her about Lucas quite a few times already when he had brought food over for her. "You should eat too, Zeres. I'll gain more appetite if you eat with me." She offered him to join her sincerely.

He stared at her. But then he nodded and started eating too.

A while later, Iryz peeked over at him.

"Zeres," she called out softly and he lifted his gaze to her. "Uhm… I think I know where that book is. You know… the one you've been searching for."

Her words were followed by a long silence until Zeres' fork made a soft sound against his plate.

"I'm fine now. So I think you can let me go back to my house now so we could go look for it. I'm certain, the book must be –" she was rambling on, not looking at his face nor realising there was something off with his expression.

"Iryz…" he cut her off. His expression was not looking anything like what she was expecting at all. Iryz thought that he was going to jump up and down in excitement and gladness. So what was with his expression right now? "You knew something about its whereabouts?"