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Chapter 753 - Take My Hand
A couple of hours ago, Zeke returned to his house and did a quick sweep of the place with his senses stretched out, only to find that Alicia have yet to return. He had left as soon as he sensed she was gone. It was as if he was absolutely certain that Alicia was not shameless enough to stay and watch the 'fun'.
After finding out that Alicia have yet to return, Zeke walked over to his favourite spot and just sat quietly on the chair. He allowed his eyes to close, but he did not drift off to sleep. He looked like he was working silently, inside his own world, which was his head.
He did not move for a long while until suddenly, he opened his eyes and stared off at the ceiling. Then he lifted his wrist and looked at his silver wristwatch, checking on the time.
A tinge of boredom flashed across his slate grey orbs. Then he stared at the door as if waiting for someone to emerge from there.
His long and elegant fingers started to tap out a slow but steady rhythm on the arm of his chair. The air around him became a little darker with impatience. He exuded the aura of a powerful man who was not used to waiting for someone – anyone at all.
Still, he did not move for another long while despite the fact that his whole body was tensed and coiled as though he could just leap and burst into action.
After another hour, he sprung up from the chair. The air around him getting even darker. He looked like he was debating whether to wait a little while longer or just leave.
He stormed off into his dark toned and elegant kitchen, took out a bottle of what looked like a rare and mysterious wine and poured himself a generous amount into a glass. It was not blood this time, as he had just taken his meal last night.
His every movement was fluid and graceful as always but unlike the past two weeks, there was a hint of boredom in his stance now. It was as if there was nothing more interesting going on at these moments. As if something more interesting had been going on for the past two weeks and now the house had suddenly turned bland and boring.
He leaned back against the bar, twirling the liquid in his glass before raising it to his lips and gulping it down in one go.
Lifting his hand again, Zeke's gaze fell on his wristwatch. Again. He was not one to keep looking at the clock but today, he had already looked at it more times than he usually did.
When the clock hit exactly two hours since he returned, he slowly put his glass down. The soft clunk of the glass hitting the tile echoed out in the empty kitchen. His gaze sharpened and he pushed himself away from the counter.
He walked towards the door but halted midway. Then he turned around and lowered himself down back onto the chair. He crossed his long legs over the other and leaned back in his usual lazy and calm stance. The air around him had gone back to a mask of calmness.
Alicia finally appeared. She looked so goddamned mad. Anger was flashing in her eyes as she glared at him. However, he found that it quite interesting and entertaining seeing her so riled up like this.
Then she came at him. If she was not a spirit, he bet that she might have gone ahead and hit his royal face again, like how she had done before.
When she stepped back, eyes wide with shock after hearing the words Zeke had said, Zeke removed his gloves and stretched his bare hand towards her.
"Come here, Alicia." Ezekiel's voice was not threatening, nor was it commanding as how he usually sounded. But there was an undercurrent Alicia could not quite put into words. And it was strange how she had momentarily forgotten her serious circumstance while his voice lingered in her ears.
She managed to drag her gaze away from his unfathomable eyes that was fixed so intently on her person and stared instead at his bare hand. Alicia knew that Ezekiel had always been wearing black gloves except when he was inside his house. In fact, she had never seen him remove and touch anyone without his gloves on.
Alicia did not get bothered by this as she had thought Ezekiel was just doing that only to avoid anyone from getting a hold of his fingerprints or something to that effect. But now, suspicions were skyrocketing within her.
Why did he remove his glove and was offering his hand towards her as if… as if he wanted her to take his hand? He knew very clearly that she could not even touch him! Not to mention that she was obviously fading away now. Was he trying to fool her again?
She clenched her fists tight and did not take a single step to approach him. "Where did you go to?" she asked instead, as if she did not hear his statement or saw him offering his hand to her.
"I should be the one asking you that since you were the one who ran off." He answered her question by throwing it back at her.
Her glare that was trained on him became fiercer. He distractedly thought for a moment that if her gaze could be turned into a killing weapon, a lesser man would have been flayed into strips within seconds.
"Stop playing with me Ezekiel. I'm done letting you play me for a fool!" she hissed. She was embarrassed and had channelled all that feeling into anger.
Ezekiel kept quiet and stared at her, but he did not retract his hand. He allowed it to remain outstretched with palms opened, an unsaid invitation for her to come forward to take his hand.
"Take my hand," he said calmly after keeping his silence for a few moments longer.
Alicia laughed a little mockingly.. "Tell me the reason why I should take hold of that royal hand of yours, Ezekiel."
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Chapter 754 - My Weakness
He held her gaze, his poker face not showing a hint of anything as his unfathomable eyes sharpened a little. "You will disappear for good once the sun rises if you don't do as I say." came his serious answer.
For a moment, Alicia's voice left her. She wanted to laugh it off but could not bring herself to. Probably it was because of his gaze and his voice as he said those words that told her he was not just teasing her but telling the truth.
"Give me a reason why I should believe you at all, Ezekiel." She lifted her chin in defiance. "No, explain to me why holding your hand would even make me not disappear in the first place. Would that really make a difference at all?" She did not quite believe that this statue of a vampire prince would suddenly be so kind to her and help her out now that she was running out of time. How would it benefit him at all if he did something so important like this for her?
"There are things I can't explain to you. Not right now, at least." He told her honestly.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. It was not that he would come and voluntarily explain to her later anyway, right? At that thought, she gave an inelegant snort and clicked her tongue in irritation.
"Fine. If you won't answer that, then answer this. Why would you even stop me from disappearing? How would that benefit you?" she narrowed her eyes, "I was even expecting you to rejoice at my final disappearance. You can finally get rid of me. It must be hard for you to act as you did for every second of the past two weeks. I guess you've been so fed up with me that you decided to opt getting completely naked before me then dragging a woman to bed, huh? I have to admit, that was a really good move. Now you're offering this? I don't believe you are not getting something out of it. You're not that kind of a person." she shook her head, her smile bitter and resentful. "If you think you can fool me twice –"
He suddenly rose from his seating position in his favourite seat.
Alicia stepped back nervously, wondering if she might have said too much.
"I said come to me, and take my hand, Alicia." His voice now dangerously low. The multi layered mask of calmness filling his eyes seemed to have dissolved in one sudden blink and she could now see a beast's gaze staring back at her from within its depths. She had seen this gaze of his before. However, that had only happened in her memories that were inherited down to her by the previous with queens.
"You…" Alicia gritted her teeth, clenching her fists so tight. If she was not a spirit, blood might have already been dripping to the ground now from her palms that were punctured in by her own nails. "You already know why I'm here, right? You clearly know the reason why I was watching over you every second, minute and hour of the day, didn't you?" she asked the question that was painful to her, knowing that she had been played so thoroughly by him.
He did not bother to respond to her question that he already knew she had the answer to. But she knew that his silence was worse than him responding. Fury blazed like hellfire in her eyes and then her fading silhouette suddenly emitted silver lights. It was as if she was a silver star on its last legs that was about to explode. She felt as though she was a dying star that would soon go supernova and turn into a black hole.
Alicia's mind was in a complete mess right now. Desperation, extreme fear, worry, confusion… all of these… so many emotions just came together in a crazy mix and bombarded her all at once. But there was only one thing that was crystal clear in her mind now before she finally disappears from this world for good and turned into nothing and that was… to kill Ezekiel. She swore that this would be the last thing she would do before she vanished into nothingness!
She did not have any other choice right now that her time was already up. She no longer has the luxury to wait and see for another two weeks. And now she had also just found out that he was already aware about the fact that she had been sticking close to him and dogging right on his heels. This meant that he had remembered all the things from the past now, right? He must have already broken the curse! Damn! And they were so close to the time limit too.
The fear and desperation had consumed her in an instant, driving her to do the very last thing she could think of in protecting her own people from him. She would completely disappear from existence after this. But… she will be taking Ezekiel along with her.
She opened her mouth to utter a chant but before a single sound even leave her lips, Ezekiel was already standing right before her, as though he had teleported himself over. She was so taken aback that she could not react for a second. Sadly, it was a second too long for her as all it took was only that one single second of her inaction.
The next thing she knew, his bare hand was already curled around her wrist tightly, branding her like a hot searing flame while his other gloved hand had come up to seal her lips. She had been effectively stopped from uttering the spell within that one second.
Alicia's eyes stretched wide, unable to believe that she could now touch him. Or to be more specific, he could now touch her!
"I know you know my weakness, and I know you had just planned to kill me off just now," he bent forward and whispered in her ears, a wicked smile gracing his handsome face. She could not help but shiver a little in anticipation. But in anticipation of what… that she was not sure of. "But Alicia… it's not quite the right time for you and I to die just yet."
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Chapter 755 - Try It
Shock filled Alicia's entire being. Her eyes circled wide as she looked at him. And though she was in spirit form, she could swear that she felt her entire frame shook with shivers at his last sentence. What could he mean by saying that?! It was fine if he referred to himself. But… she was already dead!
He kept his gaze concentrated on her a moment longer as a lethal quietness reigned between them. Slowly, he then removed his gloved hand off her mouth, warning her with his eyes that she should not try to be funny and cast that spell when she gets the chance. Alicia released a quivering huff and narrowed her eyes at him.
Her mouth opened and closed as her eyes moved down to their still connected hands. She could see his bare hand clutching her wrist. He was really touching her. He could hold on to her! And… she was… Wait… was she in the flesh now?! How? Could this be an illusion?
"W-what did you do?" she stammered, shock still wreaking havoc within her. "How did… no, this should not be possible." Shaking her head, Alicia threw him an accusing gaze.
It was as if she had figured out something. She then scoffed, smirking bitterly at him. "Ah, you must be trying to make a fool of me again, are you? Like how you did the same when you staged that show with the vampire female earlier…" She sneered slightly and tried to yank her hand out of his grip. But Ezekiel did not let go of her. His hand was like hot metal vice, gripping onto her like chains that would not let go.
"Let go of me Ezekiel!!" She hissed, glaring at him. "Stop this illusion you had created to make a fool of me you… you stone cold vampire!"
His grey eyes glimmered with dark amusement as he looked at her spitting and snarling like a cat whose fur was rubbed the wrong way. Alicia did not know why she subconsciously stopped breathing after stealing a look at his face. She finally realized just how close their faces were right now. She had never been this close to him… never had she had the privilege to observe those slate grey orbs this close.
There should not be anything special with those eyes of his. It was not like it was the first time she had seen it anyway. The other vampire royals, Alexander, Kai and Kyle literally had those similarly hued eyes as his. But why was it that Ezekiel's eyes looked somewhat different to her?
Up close, they looked… hauntingly ethereal. Ezekiel's eyes seemed to promise both hell and paradise all at once.
"You think this is an illusion…" his voice reverberated slowly in her ears, causing Alicia to finally snap out from the trance that she was in.
Fury rose within her, unable to believe that she was being reduced to a dumbstruck fool just by being this close to his beautiful eyes. How could she be admiring the eyes of this very same man whom she was about to kill? What had happened to her?!
"Yes!" she hissed through gritted teeth. "You're not a witch to cast such spells but you have demonic powers at your disposal. Making illusions like this should be a piece of cake for you, isn't it?" A forced smirk flashed over her face next. "The great Ezekiel is finally using his demonic powers. Seems that you're desperate to stay alive. Are you that afraid to die, Ezekiel? You've heartlessly taken countless lives and yet you –"
Alicia suddenly shuddered and choked on the rest of her words as his finger suddenly trailed down her throat in light feathery movements. She did not even notice when he had made a move or lifted his fingers at all.
His finger paused at the throbbing vein beneath her pale skin. "Do you really think this is an illusion, Alicia?" the sound of his voice flowed over her like what she imagined black silk would feel like – cool, satiny and smooth. And Alicia found herself swallowing hard.
Then she jerked back at the feel of her thrashing heart. Infuriated at what he was doing to her, Alicia fisted her hand and sent a punch towards his face. He did not dodge despite the fact that even she felt just how weirdly slow her movement was.
However, the one who was shocked with surprise was not him but her. She had managed to punch him, her fist actually hit his face! This meant that this was not an illusion! She was really…
Wide-eyed, Alicia looked up at him again. "What… what did you do? How could this be?"
He lifted up her hand, showing her his bare hand that was clutching onto hers. "Because I'm holding onto you. With my direct touch, you will turn from a fading spirit back to your physical body. This is the only way for you to stop from disappearing completely for the moment."
Her lips parted in disbelief. She lifted her free hand and pinched her cheek. When she felt the sharp sting of pain, she pinched her arm again, wanting to reconfirm it. She then ran her hand over her chest to her abdomen. She could feel her beating heart, her pulse…
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Alicia tried tugging at her hand from his clutches again, but he did not even budge an inch. "If I let you go, you'll turn to spirit form again and disappear."
"No… you're lying." She shook her head. "You think I will believe such nonsense?"
Something ignited within the depths of his eyes, but before Alicia could read what it was, he blinked, and it was gone in the next second. His gaze was back to that unfathomable, emotionless mask again. "I know you know it's not." Was all he said then he unceremoniously pulled her towards a room.
"I want you to let go of my hand this instant!" she commanded, all the while pulling at her hand.
When Ezekiel ignored her, Alicia began to chant a spell.
In the next instant, his gloved hand was over her mouth again. "The next time you try to chant, I will not shut you up with just this hand of mine, Alicia. I'm serious. So just you go ahead and try it." He told her, his eyes daring her to go ahead and try him if she dared.
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Chapter 756 - Surrendered
An unnerving silence surrounded them upon having those words leaving Ezekiel's lips. Their faces were so up close to each other's that they were practically sharing a breath now.
Alicia's eyes were wide as their gazes locked. His expression did not change much but she could see something spine-tingling lurking in the pits of those metallic grey orbs.
But despite the tingling warning, Alicia refused to back off and push away. She was not a fool on not to have an idea on what he was trying to say. She had seen enough men do this after all. Shutting a woman up with a kiss.
Before she knew it, an image of him had already voluntarily appeared in her mind. His hands were pinning hers against the wall and his lips… were crushed against hers. Alicia's mouth went dry as she snapped out in shocked surprise at what her mind had just showed her.
Infuriated at herself, Alicia gritted her teeth in anger and irritation. How could she have thoughts like this towards an enemy?! The ultimate enemy to them witches, nonetheless! Has she gone totally mad and lost her marbles? Or could he be using some kind of demonic power and messing with her emotions and imaginations right now? She knew what demons can do. They tempt and mess with a person's emotions, mind and desire to get what they wanted. She refused to let this demonic vampire prince to do this to her!
Taking a steadying breath, Alicia steeled her nerves. She distracted herself from the image that kept haunting her the for the past few hours. The scene of this enemy of hers with that vampire woman a few hours ago was somehow firmly imprinted in her mind even though she only had gotten a split second look at them. She still believed that Ezekiel was only into vampire women. She had seen it for herself at how he had ignored other ladies like he sees them as some unnecessary decorations that were not worthy of his attention or lifeless mannequins just for the simple fact that they were not vampires.
The thought roused defiance within her and she finally managed to respond. "Oh really? What will you do next Ezekiel? Kiss me?? Hah!!" she looked at him like she had found out one secret of his that he was desperately trying to hide. "Are you even able to kiss a non-vampire woman, much less a witch, huh, Ezekiel?" She had uttered that last line with a small sneer as if she was so sure that Ezekiel was not capable of kissing a witch. Or perhaps that he was utterly unwilling to do so.
Faster than a blink of an eye, Alicia's back had hit the soft bed. Her eyes circled wide as she looked up to the man who was now looming so powerfully over her. Her brain had still yet to catch up with what was happening. She was still shocked that the ever frozen vampire that was Ezekiel could even pull out a move such as this.
"W-what the hell are you doing?!" she stammered, trashing under him now. Her legs were kicking and hands were pushing in an attempt to get herself out from under him. But he was like a man made of steel – powerful and unyielding. Or was it just her who had become so weak? How could she be so powerless against him that she could not even make him budge an inch?! The strange weakness she was feeling roused a blazing anger that started deep within her. She hated being helpless the most! "Get off me, damn you!" she hissed out with much venom tinging her voice. But he only responded by bending over, his face moving closer to hers, as slowly, he kept his gaze fixed on hers, unblinking.
It suddenly felt hot, so hot that it felt like heat was pouring out of him and now she was enveloped with it. "I said get off me, Ezekiel!" her voice now venomous. Warning bells keep ringing in her head and she knew that if this keeps on, she might…
She saw the barest hint of a smile spreading across his lips before he spoke in an almost infuriatingly slow manner. "Tell me Alicia… you're actually dying to kiss me, aren't you?" his voice weakened, "that's why you're taunting me… testing me like this."
Alicia's temper flared. Using the unwanted heat between them, she fuelled it into her anger.
"Wrong, Ezekiel. I am dying to kill you." She spat out with all the haughtiness she could muster at the moment. But another ghost of a smile flashed across his face. Alicia perceived that as him not believing her words one bit.
Her gaze on him sharpened dangerously. She would never admit defeat before this man of all creatures. Never. Even in the smallest matter such as this!
Another forced haughty smile curved on Alicia's face. "If I would choose from being killed or kissing you…" her gaze became absolutely serious. "I'd choose death without question. Every time." she said it with much conviction, as if those words were also a vow to herself.
No smile ghosted his face this time. He just stared down at her but that one strained muscle in his jaw that kept ticking did not escape Alicia's keen observation.
"I see…" he sounded like he had surrendered, which was a huge surprise to Alicia.
She felt him loosen his tight grip on her hands, but his gaze then trailed from her eyes only to fall on her lips. The gleam in his eyes then made Alicia's heartbeat jump again without her permission. Then he suddenly moved. Alicia caught her breath at the thought that he was going to kiss her.
But his lips never reached hers. Their breaths mingled as one. He stopped just an inch away, puffing surprisingly minty breaths against her lips.
"Careful Alicia," Ezekiel whispered, his voice dangerously low and edged with warning, "cause now you just made me want to make you beg for my kiss."
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