"No. Not afraid." He answered. She had wanted to pull back to look at his face, but he did not allow her to do so. Thus, she tried to feel out his emotion through their link between each other. But try as she did, there was nothing but calmness and certainty. He must be a hundred percent sure of what he was saying or feeling without a doubt.

  　　"Then why?" she prodded him.

  　　"There's just no use. I know it's certainly something that is never a part of my plan. Now that's enough questions and do behave, Alicia."

  　　She relented and did not ask anymore and just quietly rested on him and listened to the steady thumps of his heartbeat. Then her thoughts returned to his words. Now her suspicion that he might be going to go to the underworld was right. It was not that surprising to her honestly, because he does have his demonic powers. Someone like him was not meant to be here, living in the mortal realm like the rest of them.

  　　Demons were not supposed to be able to roam freely on the surface of the earth. They can only leave the underworld if they were summoned by a strong witch. This means that once Ezekiel goes there, he would be condemned to stay in there forever. And because he was so very strong, not even Zeres could summon him back to the mortal realm.

  　　Alicia could feel that Ezekiel was set in his heart to do this. It was as if he had known all along that he was fated to leave and would never be able to come back. Now she could not help but think that this was the reason why this man never considered building a family of his own for the many long years of his life that was spent here on earth.

  　　When she was spying on him, she had never found any information about him even having an official lover. She had found out that he has had quite an appetite like most of the vampires especially the royals, but it seemed that having an official lover was never his thing. Was it because he had never fallen in love with anyone yet? Or perhaps he did, just that he had never allowed himself to progress along or acknowledge it because he believed that there was no use since he was someone who was set to leave?

  　　Alicia thought that knowing Ezekiel, her theory made a lot of sense. Then her thoughts moved on to the words that had her stop breathing. How could he tell her those vulgar words?

  　　She tried her best to keep herself calm, not wanting to disturb his rest if her heartbeat started racing like crazy again. Was he really serious about those words?! He could not be, right?

  　　Maybe he did really think of wanting to do that, but Alicia was aware that it can never happen. That was just impossible. She too, would be gone all too soon. And she could not even go anywhere. Not even to the afterlife. Once Ezekiel lets go of her, she would just cease to exist, and she had long since accepted her fate that she had chosen the day that she had died.

  　　Less than nine days left… and after that, she would not even be able to hold him, feel him and touch him like this anymore. Their intimate moments this dawn came rushing back to her again. Those feelings that had filled her person. The ecstasy and pure pleasure of it. And to think that he had only used his… his finger to pleasure her. What would happen if… if…
　　"Alicia…" she heard him call out her name in a rumbling low voice and she caught her breath. Her face burned red suddenly as though she had been caught doing something wrong.

  　　*Cough!* She attempted to sound innocent. "Yes? Anything wrong? Do you… need something?"

  　　"No. But I need you to stop thinking on whatever it is that you are thinking right now." Ezekiel had a small but knowing smile lingering on his lips.

  　　Her face burned even hotter now and she bit down sheepishly on her lip. "Can you tell what exactly I was thinking about?" she retorted, still hanging on to her innocent façade.

  　　He took a while to respond. "Yes." And her heart skipped a beat at his reply.

  　　Alicia pulled away, her hand pushing against his hard and broad chest – one that she fully appreciated while keeping in contact with. "Oh, really? I don't think so." she was raising her brow at him as she spoke, convincing herself that he definitely could not tell exactly what it was. Maybe he could tell she was thinking about him. But there should be no way that he could tell the very exact thoughts that she was mulling over just now, right? Right…?!

  　　He opened his eyes and Alicia was instantly frozen at the look that she saw reflected in those deep and profound his of eyes.

  　　"You are thinking about… naughty things, Alicia." He said straightforwardly, his eyes boring intensely into hers. "Silly girl. I told you to behave, didn't I? But here you are… being naughty. Again."

  　　"And whose fault do you think is it? It's completely your fault saying all those… those vulgar and gloriously exaggerated words!" Alicia blurted out. Her voice shaky as she felt slightly off balanced from his extremely forceful stare that had not shifted off her the least.

  　　He caught her chin and press his thumb on her lips again. "I don't exaggerate my words, Alicia. And I am going to put you to sleep right now since you have proven that you couldn't behave yourself." His voice came out softly, but full of promise.

  　　"What?! Wa… wait! Don't you dare, Ezekiel!" She cupped her palms hard on both sides of his face, pushing herself up with her knees as she pressed her palms into his face. Hard. "I told you I don't want to sleep! I am not a child that you can force to sleep whenever and wherever you want!" Alicia protested loudly, eyes flashing in indignation.

  　　A short silence passed. Then he sighed out in surrender.

  　　"Fine. I'll just make you pass out for a little while again, then." He said, causing Alicia's jaw to drop. "I believe you'd prefer that way, right? My naughty girl…"

  Chapter 805 Haste　　Before Alicia could even snap out of being completely spellbound by him and his words, Zeke's expression suddenly changed.

  　　The shift of emotions on his face happened too quickly that the wildfire that had just blazed up one moment before was literally extinguished within an instant. In one swift move, he stood and placed Alicia down, before grabbing onto the shopping bags that contained the provocative undergarments.

  　　He frantically grabbed one, making sure that he picked the one that was the least provocative among them. Looking down at his hands, he noticed that the one he picked was still provocative, but at least it had more fabric and covered more than the others do.

  　　"Wear this. Now." He commanded, giving that little scrap of clothing to her.

  　　Once Alicia took the underwear, he pulled her into his room and started looking for something else while Alicia maneuver herself to get into the panties with just one hand. Though it was a challenge, she somehow managed to put it on. She was still flustered but she could feel the utter urgency in him. And he was moving too fast that she could barely keep up, much less ask him what was going on.

  　　Before she could even think of how she should put on the bra, Zeke threw over a boxer short to her. His boxers. "Wear this. Make haste."

  　　Alicia could only huff and do as he tell her to. He made her wear a long coat over her loose shirt, not giving her anymore chances to put on the bra he had given her.

  　　Then the windows shattered for seemingly no reason at all. Alicia's eyes flew wide open in shock.

  　　She heard him curse before her eyes were covered with the furry hood of the coat Ezekiel had made her wear just a while ago. And in the next few seconds, everything descended into chaos.

  　　The fight that started up out of nowhere was dangerous and intense. Even though Alicia could not see what exactly was going on, she could very well tell by the sounds. What in the world had happened?!

  　　Her heart was thudding hard as she felt Ezekiel's arm wrapped tightly around her waist. And it bugged her as she saw how protective he was of her. It was like he was trying to protect her rather than himself. What… is going on?

  　　She tried to look out of the lowered hood, but Ezekiel moved again at impossible speeds, causing her human body to be totally unable to keep up at all. All she could do was cling onto him as everything around them breaks and shatters.

  　　Alicia could tell that whoever Ezekiel was fighting right now was… after her. Not him. And they were, vampires. That Alicia was quite certain about. Only vampires fight like this. But why? Why would vampires attack Ezekiel? Were they rogues? Where were Ezekiel's men?! Why did it seem that no one seemed to be coming to aid him?

  　　Ezekiel was not himself right now. He was weak and vulnerable! Could these vampires know about this matter? But how?!

  　　She was swung again, and she felt them get slammed against the wall. She could tell that Ezekiel had used his body to cushion her and blocked the direct blow of the slam to the wall for her.

  　　Then everything became impossibly fast again as she felt Ezekiel attacked, with her held closely to his body with his powerful arms.

  　　When he stopped, she heard thuds of something falling over on the floor. Then everything became quiet. The only thing that could be heard was Ezekiel's hard breaths as he stood there panting from all the exertion.

  　　Alicia finally retracted her hand that was fisted hard on his shirt and pull her hood down. When she looked up at him, her body froze. His face was covered with splatters of blood and his eyes too, were feral, so deadly and dangerous that she had to swallow.

  　　But then he suddenly swayed. Alicia quickly held onto him before he sagged heavily against her.

  　　"Ezekiel… are you hurt?" she asked hurriedly, panicking a little. She surveyed him closely all over and finally saw that he had a sword in his hand, made purely from his demonic power. It was now dissolving.

  　　"We need to go." Was his response.

  　　"But…"

  　　He pulled her out of his now chaotic house, walking as though he was a little drunk. The sight of him like this was so new to Alicia. She had never seen him, nor had she ever imagined him in this situation before.

  　　Once they reached the elevators, Alicia put his arm around her shoulders as they entered. She was a little concerned that he would not be able to remain standing as the elevator made its way to the ground floor.

  　　"I can still stand, silly girl." He said a little teasingly when Alicia reached out and wiped away the blood that was on his face with the edges of her sleeve. She had a million questions to ask. But she knew clearly that it was not the right time for that right now. So all she did was to give him an understanding smile before turning back to look at the elevator doors and adjusting his arm that were draped across her shoulders while her other arm wrapped around his waist.

  　　The elevator doors opened a couple of times as they descended, and humans entered. It was a good thing that the both of them were wearing black and that made the blood which was all over them not seem that obvious. She could not imagine the commotion if the humans started screaming if they could recognise the sight of fresh blood stains on their clothes.

  　　Ezekiel pulled at her again once the elevator reached the ground floor, avoiding the humans as much as possible. They rushed to his car as if someone was chasing after them. Then he drove the car out of the building with much haste.

  　　___

  　　I'm giving mini mass release tomorrow courtesy of the supergifters. ^^