Hellbound With You (WN)

Zeke only stood there and looked at Alicia while she struggled to run things through her mind and rationalise out the things that he had pointed out. A few beats of silence passed between them – both just staring at each other, each not willing to give in. "This is only a trap to further delay us." Zeke finally spoke to explain further, causing Alicia to crease her brows tighter.

"But… how did you know… I mean…" Hesitation made Alicia unable to say out the many things she wanted to say. She is not a stranger to the way how Ezekiel deals with things and she should have known better now that it was useless for her to question his decisions, especially once he has thought though on it in his mind and more so after saying it out loud. It was already a given that this man knew things none of them were even aware about.

"It seems as though … your trust in me has dwindled quite a lot these days, Alicia." He commented when Alicia pressed her lips tight, adamant on not letting anything bad pass her lips if she has nothing good to say. She met his gaze coolly and held it for a couple seconds before turning her head and looking away, unwilling to get into an argument with him.

"Didn't you remember what you told me the last time? It was you, yourself, who told me not to trust you too much, Ezekiel." She retorted and a small smirk lifted the corner of his lips.

"Now that you've mentioned it… I do remember telling you that." He uttered as his gaze swept through Alicia.

Feeling his scrutinizing gaze, Alicia's grip on Zeres' hand tightened and suddenly, she whipped around.

"Fine. I will trust you on this then, Ezekiel." She said as she tugged on Zeres' hand, urging him to leave the cavern with her immediately. Zeres could only throw a glance at Zeke before allowing himself to be pulled out by Alicia.

Once the two witches disappeared, Zeke's eyes remained fixated on the empty spot the two had occupied a moment ago. His gaze looked calculating and intense.

A rogue had jumped towards him from above but before the rogue even realises it, he was already knocked back and viciously smashed against the large crystal where Zeke was sitting on a while ago. A strong hand then reached out for the back of his neck, gripping it securely and with one sure snap, the rouge's head rolled across the cavern floor.

When Zeke lifted his gaze, he caught Kyle's bewildered eyes. And as if nothing extraordinary had happened, Zeke straightened and brushed off his hands, turning around calmly to stare at the approaching enemies without any hint of interest or feelings in his placid eyes. He gestured for Lucas and Kyle to leave and they could only obey.

As soon as Lucas and Kyle emerged from the cavern, there was a loud noise and a boom that echoed from inside where they recently took off from. It seemed that Zeke had settled the remaining rouges and did something to the cavern that it was now collapsing. What on earth did his brother do?

A shadow grabbed him while he was looking back, a little dazed. When he got his orientation back, he noticed he had landed on top of a sand dune, with both his brother and Lucas already standing on either side of him.

"…." Did they really had to give him such an ungraceful landing? He could only smile bitterly at his own incompetence when compared to the other two vampires – one, an upper elite bodyguard and the other, his very own brother, the vampire crown prince himself.

…

The group had then travelled on by plane to another country that very same night and continued their journey as soon as they had landed because unbeknownst to Alicia, Zeres had been bugging Zeke to no end. He was becoming and more desperate, even worse than Alicia ever since that night in the desert.

Alicia had stopped asking questions and talking with anyone. She had distanced herself from the rest of her travel mates and even though she was stuck with Zeres since that night in the desert, the two witches almost never spoke to each other.

As the days went by, Zeres had also stopped bugging Zeke with questions about why they still could not find that damned cavern. The witch duo had gone utterly quiet, one dying with weakness and helplessness and the other with guilt and anger towards himself.

Enemies had also started popping up everywhere they journeyed. This occurrence was so common to the point that the three vampires had already killed countless of them throughout the long journey. Even the youngest of them, Kyle, had gotten so used to it and had made such great improvements in his fighting abilities that sometimes, Zeke had allowed him to fight the enemies all on his own while they all sat by the side and watched as bystanders. The once delicate boy had finally grown up to become tougher and had already honed his killing skills. He had learned to fight and kill, and he was growing stronger day by day. The concept of kill or be killed – which was missing in him earlier on – had been instilled into his very bones from all the fights and attacks the group had to endure while on this journey.

Zeres had asked Zeke once before about the reason why were the rogue vampires coming after and attacking them. Zeke did not give him a specific answer but just told him they were probably closely linked or even the exact same thing to whatever it was that they were looking and searching for in the cavern. They even went to the extent of capturing some of the rouge vampires and torturing them for more information, but unfortunately, they got nothing. Zeres had also used his powers on them to read their minds countless times now, but all he could see in his vision was dark thick smoke. There was nothing in the rogues' minds that would give them more clues or lead them on to the correct destination.