Hellbound With You

As though she was awakened from a nightmare, Alicia jumped up from the bed, eyes wide-opened.

She looked around. After scanning the room and taking note that Zeres was nowhere to be seen, her heartbeat quickened. What time was it now?

Her head whipped towards the window and her shoulders sagged in relief when she saw that it was still night-time. But the moment she realized that it was close to midnight, she climbed off the bed in haste.

She remembered what Ezekiel told her hours ago. He had told her that if there was still no possibility of Zeres' changing his mind before midnight, she must do her best to distract him and to make sure that he does not leave his hideout until morning. Ezekiel had repeatedly reminded her that she must not let Zeres leave so he would not know what was happening outside.

Since Zeres' hideout was located at a large, uninhabited space surrounded by huge unfinished buildings, the only way for him to find out what the commotion going on in the city was, could only be done by personally leaving the hideout or by looking through a crystal ball.

Ezekiel had been quite confident that the witches will not take the time to look at their crystal balls as they were all extremely focused on creating more undead vampires. This is especially so in the case where, when manipulating the crystal balls requires more effort, concentration, and power for them to use. The only thing Ezekiel was wary about was Zeres. Even without using crystal balls, the ancient man could still sense a commotion going on even at places that were farther away from where he was. However, provided that he was distracted enough, Ezekiel had been fairly certain that Zeres would fail to realize whatever that was happening.

"Why? What are you planning to do at midnight?" Alicia had asked him as they gathered, facing each other. Like Alicia, everyone had also looked at Ezekiel with curiosity.

"We will evacuate the people out of the city by midnight." He had answered, causing everyone to look at him with confusion.

"How the hell are you going to do such a thing?" Alexander had butted in as all of them looked at Ezekiel with the same questioning gazes.

"There's actually a power plant in this city and coincidentally, the prophetess saw that there was going to be a nuclear disaster caused by an explosion in the near future. She didn't manage to foresee the details on how that would happen but nevertheless, I am going to make that disaster happen. Thus, at midnight, I'll cause the accident and force the people to leave this place." He had explained and everyone was speechless.

"I thought the prophetess couldn't see anything not related to the vampires." Alicia said as she glanced at the quiet vampiress.

"I can see some mundane things from time to time whenever I try to use my power." The old woman spoke up. "Sometimes, I can see both minor and major events happening around the world. But I usually never speak about any of it since vampires were not supposed to interfere with the humans' problem."

Alicia understood. Because witches had been doing the same and followed the same unspoken code of conduct. Witches also knew many things and they were expected to do nothing about it if it was of no consequence to them. Both races were always doing their best never to get involved in the matters of the humans.

Shifting her gaze towards Ezekiel, Alicia's gaze became severe. "Tell me. Are you planning to evacuate the people because you already knew the outcome of all this? Are you saying that –"

"No." Ezekiel had cut her off, meeting her gaze. "This is only a precautionary measure I'm taking. Unfortunately, the prophetess could not see anything that is able to verify and tell us that a fight between us and Zeres will definitely break out in this place. So, we need to do something beforehand just in case you fail to change his mind. Because we can predict that the fight that will be happening would be of unprecedented proportions."

"But even if we send all the humans away from this place, wouldn't the human authorities still come over and check things out to identify what was happening? The human government might even send out their military troops."

"You don't have to worry about it. I'll be dealing with that issue while you try to get to Zeres. There won't be any information that would leak out while we're still here. Humans are usually slow creatures and will take time to come to any major decision making, so their actions won't be immediate." Ezekiel's tone held a hint of derision as he explained, giving the impressions that he despised – not the humans themselves, but – their lack of quick wit and response to emergency circumstances.

"It's a good thing this city isn't that big and is quite far from this country's capital. Moreover, no one will dare freely approach a place claimed to be filled with radioactive radiation. They will need time to sort everything out before entering this place. Even if an intense fight were to break out, there'd be enough time for us to settle everything and clear out way before the humans even arrive at the scene." Ezekiel had said with certainty. "So, all you have to do is to make sure that Zeres does not notice anything. He'd probably release his minions the moment he realizes what is going on and we would be forced to fight by then while the humans are still evacuating."

What Ezekiel had said troubled her. Even though the vampire prince was calling this as only a precaution, Alicia could not help but think of the worst-case scenario. 'Is it really hopeless now? Could it be that I really couldn't do anything anymore?' she had asked herself but, in the end, she could not give up on Zeres. She won't give up on him.

But what Zeres did truly crushed her hope. He did not even give her a chance to speak to him properly. She could not believe that Zeres had cast a spell on her just to keep her silent.

Clenching her fists tight, Alicia headed towards the door. She cannot afford to stay here. She must find him at all costs before midnight strikes and she only had few precious minutes left.